The Stranger from the Sky
by acebrainbuster
Summary: An odd gamer is enjoying a classic when due to his anger and a strange storm cause him to fall in his favorite game! Will he be able to make his favorite story a happier one or will he cause a calamity for his mistakes? rated T for language- Self Insert
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

A/N This is my first fanfic. I remember reading self inserts and they eventually became a guilty pleasure of mine. I always liked how a person with all the knowledge of a place could interact in odd ways to characters in a fictional universe. So I decided to make my own, however it won't be me

Also to explain some stuff through out the story were going to have ATE's! YAY! cuz you can just have my point of view all the time.

Also for future references while cloud still has Zack memory's he may be a little ooc because I'm trying to make it so he really did adopt himself as Zack, but still had some of his own personality since it would make sense and help a little in the long run.

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><p>Its the middle of summer... I should be enjoying this, I mean I'm a senior now and this is the last summer vacation I'll ever have unless I go to college. I was enjoying summer the way I always did, tons of games. I had four older brothers who shared the same interests as me and they were amazing at games. My interest started when I watched them as a kid. Nowadays I occupied my time playing RPG's both old and new.<p>

So here I am sitting on the living room floor at 7pm trying to enjoy my summer and kill Zeus on God of War on the hardest possible difficulty and I was having problems having died for the sixth time with me throwing my controller in frustration.

"I swear if I die one more time I am going fucking ballistic."

I decided not to chance it and switch over to another game, if I got to annoyed I would do something stupid. At least my parents aren't home, They along with my little brother went to visit my step dad's side of the family up in Michigan for the week and I offered to watch the house while they were gone. I never knew his side so I thought it wouldn't matter if I went or not, plus I had all the time I ever needed to finish games I liked or never bothered beating...except God of War, I swear keeping Zeus from stealing my health from Gaia is a pain. I got up and check my phones messages...lets see here, okay two messages...I guess I'll hang out with Matt tomorrow, and another message about keeping the fridge stocked. Man even when she's away moms like "Nathan do this, Nathan change that." Oh well she means well. I wander over to back tom my PS3 and started browsing what games I had downloaded.

"Lets see...what haven't I beaten."

I started to hear thunder outside and looked out my window. Although it was dark I could still see the clouds start to head my direction. Hell it was already raining. "God damn Colorado weather, better not mess up my game...Ah here were are!" I decided on finishing Final Fantasy 7. A few months ago I got it off the PSN network but I never got around to finishing it and it was kind of bugging me. I played it back on the PS a ways back like four times and got to the third disc but never quiet got to finishing the thing. N I guess nothings stopping me now though. I started it up and started from my last save which was in the middle of the last dungeon. I went on until the battles with Sephiroth and Jenova started and I was doing fairly well for myself since I took the time to level up my characters. I had my favorite team of Cloud, Yuffie, and Vincent on so I felt confident I would beat this game after all these years.

"Man I'm thirsty...did anyone buy anything before they left?" I paused and got me something to drink, the I check the fridge and see some half full Mountain Dew bottle in the back. I guess I would have to go to the store tomorrow if I want anything. I should pic up some Kool-Aid too so I don't run out of anything. I take the bottle and sit down and start the game up again. I started rearranging materia so I could beat the bosses a little easier.

"I knew I should have taken the time to level up Shield, every other turns going to be healing now, just great."

Another crack, but this time it was closer than usual. I took a peek outside again and saw the storm was already hear and was causing some major problems by the looks of it. I switched channels just for a second and heard the newscaster say it was causing blackouts in different parts of the town. "Damn it I'm not letting s stupid storm stop me from beating this game after ten years." I got my new power and immediately started up the fights against the first Jenova monster.

I was beasting on all of the Jenovas since I actually did all of the side-quests in the game to get all the cool materia and take the time to master those of them. But I was having difficulty on the Bizzaro Sephiroth battle since apparently I wasn't leveled up enough and had to switch teams out when they died halfway through the battle. Outside I could hear hail come crushing down on the house and there was thunder probably every ten seconds...Why is there hail? Its the middle of summer...weird but it'll shut down my TV if I don't hurry.

"Fuck my life" I finally got to the Safer Sephiroth battle but I was stuck with the 2 character team because everyone else was dead. I swear if I had Aeris right now Sephiroth would be eating it. And the storm wasn't getting any better, for some reason it just kept getting louder and harder and it was annoying the shit out of me because any second now I could be shut off from the game because of some kind of short circuit.

"Come on Barret you can do better that! And Cid I just healed you!" I was having my ass handed to me by Safer since I could only get one hit in per turn. I was to agitated again at this point and just decided to try to end things as fast as possible

I unloaded every power spell I had equipped to Barret and Cid and hoped it would worked. I couldn't believe how lucky I was. Sure enough it killed Safer and the scene changed to the final strike between Cloud and Sephiroth. I was waiting for the moment where Cloud would use Omnislash on the bastard. This was something for my record books. It was only time I had ever finished a Final Fantasy game. The scene started where Clouds ultimate weapon shined and was about to attack.

Immediately I heard the biggest earth rumbling lighting strike in my entire life and every electrical appliance in my house just flashed and turned on for two seconds and my TV fluctuated. Now I started panicking that the storm might actually kick me off my game before I can deal the final blow to the last boss in the game. Cloud was midway through the attack.

"Come on Come on Come on Come on!"

He was mid jump he was going to make it I was almost already jumping with cheer and when he slashed I heard another earth rumbling crackle and all of my appliances just turned off. My happyness was immediately ripped right out my heart

"NO!" I was so close! I saw the meteor just barely nail Sephiroth in the face and it blacks out at the worst possible fucking time!.

"Come on your not out you just went to sleep mode...damn it come back so I can win the game!" I was not about to put up with this. I had half assed this game long enough and when I finally wanted to get that win it decided to go out on me. My TV came back on and I was banging at it and yelling at it to go back to normal.

"Come on you piece of trash." I was bashing the screen just hoping it would switch it back to my screen.

"I will beat you tonight even if I have to strangle go in and Sephiroth myself!" I took one last punch right as another thunder crack rattled the house and at that moment I got through the screen. But there wasn't any broken glass, no electrocution, or an painful experience what so ever. My hand literally phased through the TV. I sobered up real quick and tried to pull it back out but it was stuck and every time I leaned forward I just went deeper with less chances of getting out.

"Oh shit, come on get off, what the hell is happening!" I started to feel myself get sucked in too, my arm was already through and all I head left was my shoulder, and even that was starting to phase through.

"HOLY SHIT SOMEONE HELP! HELP!" I was pulling at the carpet trying to get some kind of hold but it wasn't doing me any good. I tried o push of the thing but that only made my hand slip and get both my arms caught.

"Fuck..." okay calm down, maybe I can push with my legs of the entertainment center I could get off. I tried that and carefully moved my legs to the outside of the TV, use it to pry me out an see what the hell was wrong with this, only to have it bump my knee and get it caught in the screen too.

"GOD DAMN IT!" I was stuck until I felt the screen warbling around. Now the thing was pulling me in faster and harder. I could feel my arms and leg feel crushed under pressure inside of it. Eventually it got to the point where it was only my head and back on the outside. I felt my torso get pulled with a jerk and all that was left was my face against the thing. I felt it creep over me like it was a blob just encasing in me. Finally it started to ease over and pull me in. I closed my eyes and held my last breath, just hoping whatever the hell was happening was going to stop soon.

I consider myself a decent morning person, I love to wake up at 8 and have some breakfast and wash up and junk, my favorite part of the morning though is right when you wake up. Because in that few seconds after waking up you forget who you are or what you do, and then it all comes rushing back. This time was completely different from what I was used to. I felt disorientated, groggy, and like i was thrown through a jet turbine. When I woke up it I experienced two things, one was to a horrible smell. It was as if I fell into the worst part of a city dump. And then there was this loud garbled whispering, I can sleep through a lot of stuff, but god it was annoying. There was also an incredible throbbing in both my head and legs. Despite my body protests I got up and tried to figure out what happened, when I opened my eyes to investigate I was surprised not to see a glaring light, in fact the area was decently illuminated though only in puts where the sun was showing through...

"Wait what?"

I looked up and noticed I wasn't in my house and it was just the trash waking me up. What I was looking at was a large slab of steel covering most the sky and a tower. Okay this doesn't make any sense, how the hell did I end up out of my house? What happened? I looked around and find myself in some sort of an alleyway. The only buildings I could differentiate were the walls and some tower... that tower looks like familiar though...forget it I noticed I need to go and see where I am and why I'm out here. I need to call the police and get a ride home an see who dragged me out. I decided it would be better to get out of the garbage and see what street I'm on, I peak my head out and saw a huge crowded area and people walking about. There's some kind of fountain I can't recognize and the air seems dirtier than around my neighborhood. Was I taken downtown? How does that work?

"Guess I need to get off my ass and actually see where the hell I am." I went back and searched the ally for any of my stuff just in case I dropped something important. I noted I still had my white T-shirt and my tripp pants on from the night before I was also in my lace-less water shoes, I checked my pockets and saw I still had my phone as well as my iPod and my headphones. I also found my favorite pair of welders goggles. I guess I forgot to take those out. Hmm strange.

"At least I have something." I open up my phone and dial 911 only to get a tone that says to complete the number. I was thrown for a loop since 911 is for emergency's unless something drastic happened. I dialed my friends and my parents numbers and they all said the caller didn't exist. I pocket my phone thinking it was just on the fritz.

I was about to walk off when I saw a glint near where I woke up, after some rummaging I found a perfectly nice sword! It even came with a holster, It was my favorite kind too, a katana!. although it had a slightly bent edge at the end. Whatever if someone is throwing this away its mine now. I mean who throws away a perfectly good sword? This thing is sharp too, not even that display stuff my brother has. I put the holster on and walked back out the alley and try to figure out where I am. I wander around and see that some of the buildings look like their made out of scrap which really creeps me out thinking about what part of town I was in.

After about ten minutes I found myself close to that tower I saw before, I swear I've seen it before...in-fact the whole city seems familiar, maybe I was here once before...I really should get directions. I went in the structure and found a very well lit and clean lobby with two stairs leading up to and impressive looking second floor, I also found a secretary at the front desk.

"Hello sir do you have an appointment?" she said in a very kind voice.

"No I'm here because I'm a little lost, I can't seem to find out where I am?"

"Oh you must be from the country side, I can see how you can be a little mixed up!"

"Yeah that's it!" Okay Colorado springs isn't that big a city and I have a great sense of direction.

"I do hope you enjoy your stay here in Midgar for however long your here, now where do you need to get?"

"Ah well I need you to tell me where..." wait a tick " Excuse me but what did you say?"

"I said I hope you enjoy your stay in Midgar."

….

….

Now way...no bullshit that's not possible.

I ran outside and looked around, I finally noticed my surroundings. There was a theatre had in the showcase "Loveless", the vehicles that I brushed off had no specific company brand name and some even had three wheels heard the distinct sounds of a train in the distance even though there wasn't a station anywhere close to downtown. I turned around and looked at the tower again, finally noticing the large insignia on the side with the towers name at the bottom.

Shinra Electric Power Company


	2. Chapter 2

Ch 2

What the hell happened, how is it I'm stuck in here? This was supposed to be a dream or something. Yeah its a dream I just need to shock myself awake. I promptly pinched myself and flinched when I felt the slight pain. Okay..so I'm not dreaming..I think.

"So...what do I do?" I am not prepared for this. I've read about this stuff but experience is a completely different...I can't even describe it. I need to get home though...questions how?...another TV? No that wouldn't help. How am I supposed to get out of this?...Go through the story? That would be stupid I would never survive here. But naturally if the game ends then I have to end up somewhere else...wait maybe I could help out...change a few things here and there...make things better. Yeah that sounds like a good idea...prevent Bigg's...wedge's..and Jessie's deaths...help Cloud become sane again...

Aeris! I could save Aeris! I had the knowledge! I could totally prevent her death. But that's pretty far away if I'm at the beginning of the game. Maybe I should just calm down and get my bearings...yeah good idea. I should go into this stuff just yet...maybe I'm hallucinating and just walking around town like a crazy person.

And if I was it was a REALLY good hallucination. The town resembled Crisis Core maps so I knew I knew I had to go up some stairs to get to the train station, it was still noon on my phones clock so I could stay on and keep thinking on what to do. I eventually found the station and boarded without anyone trying to stop me for a ticket or anything, call Shinra what you will but at least they have decent public transportation. After getting on I decided to listen to some music and put on something to keep me up beat...Move Along sounds nice right about now. Now I need to get to 7th heaven, then think up a cover story...well I am new to Midgar needing employment. Yeah nothing could mess that up.

"Attention passengers, our next stop will be sector five, all other stops will be for Shinra employees only to the reactors, so all civilian passengers must get off at sector five. Have a nice day."

I stand corrected. At least I knew my way around a little. But what would I do for money? I don't have any gil so an inn would be out of the question, and I can't exactly call my friends and see if I can come over. Man I'm screwed. After a few more minutes the train came to a complete stop and I got off, Sector five was worse than the Shinra building, the people around were mixed with con artists and pickpockets and there was a VERY pungent smell of filth. I went right past everyone and just kept walking until I found the only decent place left. Lucky for me I only had to ask directions once to find what I was looking for.

The church.

I opened the large doors and found no one was inside. I walked a few more steps and found one of the most beautiful sights ever. The flowers were swaying perfectly, the light coming from the windows had shown perfectly down the corridor. The roof hadn't been crashed through yet so the the place was whole and solid. I knelt down and smelt the flowers. I had a really good vibe from the place, but then again it was something you had to have been there for. I did spot some weeds coming up from in between a lot of the flowers though, well I had nothing to do so I started to pluck them out. I've done yard work before so I knew how to not mess up the flowers while getting rid of the weeds.

It was dark by the time I finished, I sat down and decided to sleep here for the night. better than the dump anyway. I picked the bench closest to the flowers before my eyelids started to get heavy. I had one last look at them before I dozed off.

(the next day)

Again I woke up to a sound, but this time it was like low grinding metal, but it felt like someone was crying but it wasn't...human. It gave of such an over powering feel too, as if what ever was screaming or something really was in pain. But as soon as I opened my eyes the sound dispersed much like the first time. I wouldn't be bothered by it so much If it only happened once. But the thing was I had never experienced a dream twice in a row.

No, no, stop I shouldn't be thinking like that. We have more pressing matters to attend to. I looked around and found I was still inside the church, I got up and did a few morning stretches, even throwing in some squats. Afterward I checked the flowers one more time to make sure their weren't any weeds left. Sure Aeris picks them when Cloud falls threw the roof but I might as well be a nice guy and lessen the work load. I didn't want to get spotted yet, sure if I met Aeris now I could get on her good side and try to be around when Cloud appears but it would take to long and I have to make sure I'm at least a good part of the team before I can try to influence anything.

I sneaked out the front door and checked if anybody was around, good the coast was clear. I shut the door and tried to get back to the train station, once I get to sector seven I could try to get a better handle on everything, what I didn't count on though was that on my why to the gate, eight men seemed to come out the shadows and surround me.

"Well boys what do we have here?" one of them said "Seems like someones a little lost." another said behind me. I tried to keep my cool, they all seemed unarmed and I at least had some skills using swords but looking at the men kept me from either fighting or running away. In FF7 you fought creatures called vice, but from my perspective they apparently they weren't monsters. They were thieves, bandits, and just disgusting low lives. They all weren't fat like in the game, or wore the same clothing. Some were portly but a few guys I could see had either a decent amount of muscle or a lean quality. They all had basically rags and cheap masks on.

"Hey I'm not looking for trouble, I just need to get to sector seven and I'll be on my way." One of them, probably the leader spoke first.

"Well lucky for you, we were just passing by, since I'm in such a good mood I'll let you off if you give us the rest of your gil." his smile afterwords was just oozing with smug. Crap.

"Listen I don't have any gil."

"Then I guess we should take your sword then!" one of the cohorts yelled behind me.

"I can't do that either!" This is getting worse by the second.

"Okay then." the leader stepped forward

"I guess it isn't your lucky day, try not to struggle to much I want to have the sword in good condition when I sell it." all of them got in position to strike. The first man was from behind, I drew my sword and spun 360, having played with swords I knew it still took force to cut somebody so I put all my strength into it. It was a blur, but when I focused I saw I gave the guy a good gash across his face, he doubled back in pain while the others stood dumbfounded.

"What are you waiting for? Get him!" the rest tried to use their numbers against me, however I pulled the same spin and they stopped, afraid to end up like their friend. _Here's my chance. _The rest was a fuzz, every slash and stab I made flowed perfectly, the gang was full of the weakest I was done the entire gang sans their leader was trying to cover up some kind of wound. When I looked though the leader was now sweating buckets.

"You know forget the gil, have a good day." He ran of and I decided it be best I left too, lest I attract unwanted attention. I needed gil so while the men were either now unconscious or worse from the bleeding...man I hope I didn't kill any of them, I'm not ready for that yet. I checked their pockets, in the end I pocketed 250 gil. Thank god I didn't get spotted, that would have sucked to get hassled by Shinra.

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><p><strong>ATE<strong>

Tseng was going through his usual routine in the slums, wake up early and keep watch of the church where Aeris lived. Although it was a little mundane since he could simply watch and capture her to get it over with it allowed him to relax, even if just a little, from the other duties. Granted Tseng was indifferent with his job, it paid well enough and the hours were flexible on occasion, but having to Shinra's dirty work on a daily bases. His PHS ringed and he checked his schedule, he needed to report back to the president... He hadn't even started his mission yet. Oh well, he could send someone else to keep an eye on the place...perhaps Reno, he had been wandering the slums lately since Tseng had been doing most the work for the group. Reno was a good Turk but he seemed to...what was the word? Aloof.

If he only stopped messing around. Tseng was traversing back to the sector seven station when he happened upon a peculiar sight. He saw someone surrounded. Many people had been mugged in the slums before but not normally this early. He stood to watch and found that the victim looked a little odd. The man was tall, around 6'2 or 6'3, he was lean and had brown messy hair. He wore a simple T-shirt and an odd style of pants and carried an odd katana.

Nothing to do here, his job don't include helping civilians. Just when he was about to leave though he saw the man pull out his blade and cut the face of one of the bandits.

Tseng then saw the stranger flow from enemy to enemy with powerful grace. The stranger took money from the fallen foes and ran towards the gate as well. HE hoped this won't cause to much trouble in the started for the tower, he didn't need to report this, after all muggings ,fights, and even deaths were an every day part of the slums. What Tseng was interested most though, was that the mans sword pulsed purple during the struggle, as well as his fighting style was odd...as if improvised.

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><p>It took only a couple minutes to get to the playground and the entrance to sector seven, it was still early so there weren't any kids running around yet, when I got close to the door though I felt my stomach grumble. Well I should probably eat before I try anything. I skipped the gate and went to Wall Market, up close it was a sight to see. It was basically New York, it was covered by the plate more than the rest of Midgar so it was always lit by the many signs. I could see the signs of restaurants, clubs, and hotels alike, I could even hear the subtle thumping of bass from what I believe was a rave not to far away. I was pulled out of my daze by another grumble from my stomach. Disappointed that I couldn't enjoy the view, I started to look for a decent restaurant.<p>

It only took a couple of minutes though to stumble upon one. It was the one where cloud got the pharmacy coupon. It had the same straw front and everything, however when I entered it was much bigger than the game originally made it to look. The kitchen had seemed to grow in scale and had a few more chefs working in it along with a waiter or two and had a few tables to the now larger left wall as well. Guess everything can't be caught in detail. But I'm not about to complain on an empty stomach. I entered and was hit by the sounds of chatter amongst the patrons and the smell of meat and eggs.

"Welcome! Sit wherever you like." was my greeting from one of the chefs or owner, I couldn't tell. I nodded my head and gave a small wave when I decided I would take one of the tables, a minute later one of the waiters came up and gave me a small menu along with asking me for a drink.

"I'll take some water and whatever today's special is." He jotted down my order and said he would be right out. I began to relax in my seat, I liked these kinds of places, you could be loud and happy with your friends or just chill-ax and enjoy the sounds. It was another five minutes before the waiter brought me my food, today's special was apparently a deluxe style breakfast, complete with a large helping of pancakes, eggs, hash-browns, ham and bacon. Needles to say I was about to tear off the waiters arm to get my food.

"That will be 130 gil sir." he held out his hand and I gladly paid. He put the plate down and I started to chow down immediately. Nothing could possibly ruin this for me.

"Oh come on! So I'm 50 gil short, cut me some slack, I can pay tomorrow I just want my food YO!" Well there went that happy thought. Everything is great until some guy starts being a baby. Maybe I should stop saying that stuff though, Murphys Law was a very powerful force to tempt.

"You pay before you get your food, you know the rules."

"Come on I'm hungry, how could you do this to a paying customer?"

"Because you aren't paying in full!" I looked over and saw a hunched figure in a suit yelling at the chef from earlier. I felt a little sympathy for the guy.. ah what the hell.

"Hey here. He's fully paid for." The chef looked a little off put by the fact I paid for the guy.

"Fine." He took my gil and yelled at the others to make another special.

"Thanks yo, your cool in my book." my new friend told me.

"Hey its only a little gi..." my breath got caught in my throat. Standing next to me was none other than Reno. Now I had seen him in Advent Children and he seemed like an okay guy, even if he did kill thousands of people in the game. But up close I could really see the detail of him, like the youthfulness in his face, but he had the eyes of a hardened killer. He had his goggles on and his crimson hair in its usual pony tail. What threw me off though was that he was around my height. Really weird but hey, I'm 6'2 so its a little odd to see one of your favorite characters just a little shorter than yourself.

But...damn if I didn't keep my guard up I might screw everything. Sure Reno was a very chill dude and he did very little in the Turks..actually he probably did a lot for the Turks, that didn't stop the fact that when he wants something he can be very brutal. In the game he was smarter than he portrayed himself to be and he only half ass-ed what jobs he didn't take seriously. I had to be careful, if I said one wrong thing I could be coughing up blood and info.

"Not many people are generous in the slums."

"It was nothing, I had extra gil and felt like doing something good, have a nice day." I walked back to try to finish my breakfast and get out, however Reno came to my table the minute I sat down.

"I didn't catch your name yo." he leaned into the seat opposite of me. Fuck

"...Nathan." Well there went laying low. But then again he would probably learn about me soon enough when he blows up the plate. Speaking about that maybe I could stop it. Its a big event but we could prevent it and still have to get Aeris from Shinra. I pushed that back, thinking time comes after food.

"Well thanks, Nathan, now I can enjoy some decent food." he smiled as my waiter brought his food to the table.

"Well with a suit like that I'm surprised you would come to the slums for food." If I'm stuck with him I might as well enjoy it, how many people get to say they had breakfast with Reno...well maybe the other Turks but I mean fans of Reno.

"Yeah well you can actually get sick of that gourmet food every now and again." he started with a piece of bacon in his mouth.

"I can see that."

"I haven't seen your face around here before...you new?"

"I just got into Midgar actually, looking for employment." I explained with a mouth full of pancake.

"Really...where you from." Okay think, what is a small useless place I could totally lie about..." Medeel."

"WOW, far off for employment, you could have probably stopped at Kalm and got something small." I shook my head.

"I need something that can pay well enough to get me home soon as well as have enough to keep me alive for a while."

"Its not that easy yo." I stiffed a laugh, I remember something about Reno having said that constantly in the Japanese version of the game and movie. It really seemed to fit his personality though.

"Whats so funny?" I waved my hand.

"Nothing, but hey I just need to get money fast, that's my goal and I'm stickin to it." He had grin on his face.

"I can respect that." I finished and got up.

"Maybe I'll see you around dude." I started to walk away.

"Hold up yo." He got up even though he only half finished his.

"Here take this, I might be able to hook ya up with a simple job, unlike you I have connections." he held out a card. I was surprised, but then again Shinra is a business as well as an oppressive government figure so I guess it makes sense that they have cards, but what would a Turk have cards for? Meh forget it, not important.

"Thanks man, but I have a feeling that I won't need it." I took the card anyway, how could I be rude to a guy like Reno before he did anything wrong?

"Well I guess I can't do much more than that, I still owe you for the breakfast though, maybe a drink some other time yo?" He said with his signature smile. Dude I'm eighteen and I'm pretty sure the drinking age in here is the same as the US.

"No thanks dude, It was nice meeting you." Honestly why buy and underage guy a drink? I was about to walk off when he called out again.

"You don't even know my name though, how bout we go for a few and we can get better acquainted."

"But I do know who you are. Your Reno, second in command of the Turks, the recruiters for SOLDIER as well as personal trained guards for the president of Shinra." His reaction was hilarious. He immediately froze and had his mouth wide open, his eyes bugged out for a split second before he tried catch himself. I didn't wait for him to recover, I ran out and made a few laps through some of the buildings and alleys before I went out the exit and got through the slums to the sector seven entrance again. It was open this time and I found the guards from the game that never let you pass standing around, when I walked by they were content with just nodding their heads in my direction. I nodded back and turned to see the massive pillar. It was almost frighting to think that was the only thing between these people and certain doom, it didn't help either to know in about a day or two it was defiantly going to tumble. I shook my head. I can prevent it, I just need to get there in time. All I needed to to was prevent Reno from pressing that button, simple right? I was cut from my train of thought when two people walked by taking louder than they should be.

"Did you see the young man at the train?" One woman asked.

"Yeah, he was just laying next to the train, I didn't even see him in the cab." the other responded.

"That wasn't even the weird part, he had those eyes." Both walked off. Mine almost doubled in size. If they were talking about who I think they were talking about then it was time for the games plot to get rolling. I sprinted to the train station even though it was a short walk from the pillar. When I got to the ledge I found that the train was speeding off already. I looked around and finally something caught my eye. A large buster sword and a very exasperated Cloud leaning onto the light post. Man his hair was more ridiculous in person. I almost smiled. It was time to begin the story. I went over and acted casual.

"Wo dude you seem beat." I went up and offered a hand. He looked at me with tired and confused eyes until he took my hand and used the pole to get himself and the one ton sword up of the post.

"I've been traveling a while, it caught up with me." He said with a meek smile.

"No kidding, I just got to Midgar myself." I let him use me as a crutch for two seconds before he finally straightened up enough to stand on his own. Which felt odd because when he stood straight he was a few inches shorter than me. He was basically as tall as Reno.

"Heh, thanks but I didn't need help." He had a slightly bigger grin on than last time.

"Hey you should be more careful, someone would take advantage of someone on the street." He had a small laugh which knocked me back a bit. Cloud was acting to...not cloud, in the game he was very cold and quiet and yet here he is laughing and brushing of fatigue. It was like Zack from Crisis Core, but a little more smug.

"I'll be more careful next time, thank you." he shook my hand and was about to walk off when a third voice came out of nowhere.

"Cloud?" We both turned to see woman win a skirt and tank top with what I saw was MMA gloves. Tifa looked like a deer in the headlights though looking at Cloud. I didn't care to much since I realized two things. One, she was the same height as Cloud! What the hell seriously I'm taller than the protagonists. That doesn't seem right. And two is that she had the same...bust size as FF 7. I found it odd since almost everyone else has had resemblance to their Advent Children forms. Meh not complaining.

"Tifa?" Cloud finally spoke and stumbled before he fell again, it took all my strength when I caught him to keep both of him and his sword from tumbling.

"Oh Cloud, are you OK?" Tifa was kneeling holding on to his face.

"Jeez, how long has it been?" Cloud seemed to freeze when she asked his eyes were flashing back and forth like he was searching for something.

"Its been five years." I noticed her eyes flashed with more concern than before. She knew cloud was wrong and that he hadn't seen her longer than that.

"Cloud...what happened after you left Nibelheim?"

"I'll tell you later, we should get somewhere where I can sit."

"Oh! of course, here lets got to Seventh Heaven, excuse me could you help him?" She looked at me with pleading eyes.

"Sure, I don't have anything else to do, I'd be glad to help." Tifa led us out of the station and past the pillar, it was a bitch to help Cloud the entire time though. Seriously the guy and his sword bared down on me.

"Here have a seat, I'll get you both something to drink." She said when we FINALLY got to the bar. Cloud took the seat close to the pinball machine while I chose the seat opposite of the thing.

"I would kill for a lemonade if you have any." They both seem to look at me oddly before they went back to their business. When she was done she gave cloud some random drink and me my lemonade. She looked at Cloud with an odd expression before she focused on me.

"I'm sorry but I didn't catch your name before." Cloud looked over and nodded his head as he agreed.

"Where are my manors, I'm Nathan, Nathan River. I came to Midgar for employment when I ran into your friend here miss." the lie sat easily with the two.

"Well I guess were in the same boat then." Cloud spoke up.

"Oh really? What kind of work were you looking for?" I took the chance to change the subject on myself.

"I'm a mercenary, I quit SOLDIER and decided to come to Midgar to offer my services." I caught Tifa's glance at him until I spoke up.

"Really how good were you?"

"Former SOLDIER First Class." Now the brunettes eyes widened, when she was about to ask something but someone busted through the front door.

"TIFA, what are these guys doing here?" I smiled, I didn't need to look behind me to attach a burly voice like that to Barret.

"I'm sorry, one of my old friends popped up and I was just helping him out." Barret walked up to the counter and I saw how he looked in real life, he defiantly had the physique of a body builder, but the fact he had a gun on his right arm threw me for a loop, it was bulky and out of place. Not something someone would miss.

"Well they need to leave, we need to talk about day after tomorrow's business."He tried to whisper.

"Then I guess I should go look for some work." Cloud finished his drink and started off to the door. "Cloud wait!" Tifa jumped over the counter to catch him.

"Just stay a little longer."

"Tifa I'd like to but you know I can't stay, I need to earn a living." He didn't even look back before he started again.

"We could pay you!" She shouted.

"WHAT?" yelled Barret. He looked this time.

"What do you mean 'we'?"

"You could help us I mean we're-" she covered her mouth when she took a look at me. damn, well I can try to join later.

"I know when I'm not needed, later." I got up. When I was about to leave the pinball machine pulled down and and came back up with a little girl and a rebel looking guy.

"PAPA!" Marlene screamed and jumped into his good arm. Biggs looked over

"Aw Barret good, I wanted the say the bomb is in perfect working condition, Jessie just needs to set the timer, so we can strike the reactor tomorrow instead."

"Bomb?" Cloud murmured. Biggs jumped at the new voice and froze when he saw the two new faces in the bar. The whole room was on a knifes edge, I could hear a pin drop outside, along with a bunch of other random sounds, until the one idiot in the room broke the silence.

"Well" I started "Sounds pretty important so I probably shouldn'!" Barret dropped Marlene and pointed his gun.

"Hold it!" I was posed like a cactuar when I froze. Lucky for me Tifa help up her hand.

"Hold on Barret lets not be rash." He didn't lower his gun though.

"Well if Biggs hadn't blown it but now we don't know if we can trust these two." The man in question rubbed the back of his head.

"What is this all about?" Cloud asked. Tifa sighed before she explained how she owned the bar and that AVALANCHE, the anti-Shinra group used it as their base of operations. The entire time Cloud just nodded while I kept still from fear of becoming Swiss cheese.

"I can see how you would need to higher me...I'll do it for 2000 gil." Cloud said off highhandedly.

"WHAT? You think I should pay you!" Man, Barret can get red in the face.

"BARRET!" He was cut off by Tifa.

"He was SOLDIER, he could help."

"I don't care, that should make him even more suspicious!" He kept his gun aimed at Cloud. Tifa then pulled Barret close and started whispering to him, his eyes widened a fraction before they went back to normal. Must be explaining the he isn't right in the head situation,I thought. The large man grumbled before he spoke up.

"Fine, we'll pay you to help make sure it goes well."

"I'll take the job." Cloud sat back down.

"Now we got you." Barret's eyes, as well as arm focused on me now.

"Hey man I can see how this will end so how bout we calm down." He cross his arms much to my pleasure "Let me think." We waited about a minute of Barret walking around before he looked at me.

"Tell me what do you think of Shinra?"

"Well... they do provide energy to everyone who needs it" I stated. I couldn't show to much just yet.

"...That's it? That's all you think of Shinra."

"Well what do you want me to say? I know how the lifestream works, and Mako extraction disrupts that process, causing our planet to die. But what can I do about it, I just keep my head down and out of that business." Barret stared at me from across the room with a thoughtful expression. There was about a minute of solid silence.

"We can make a difference." I looked up and he started to walk over to me. He seemed surprised when he only had to tilt his eyes down a little. Barret looked 6'3 from where I stood.

"How well can you fight?"

"I've had this sword since I got here, you figure it out." Those thugs were the only real fight I ever experienced in my life, sans LARPing. But hitting a dude with a Styrofoam sword was way different from what I experienced earlier.

"How old are you man?" I raised an eyebrow

"I'm eighteen." Everyone's eyes in the room seem to bug out for a second

"What?" "Your that tall and only eighteen years old?" Cloud seemed to sound a little offended.

"It would explain why he wanted lemonade rather than some alcohol earlier."

"Coulda sworn you were at most twenty three." Seriously? Is it that surprising that I'm tall and not twenty or thirty something years old? Hell I'm surprised everyone in the groups isn't at LEAST as tall as me...then again I always played the game as a kid. Man you get a warped mindset on this kinda stuff depending on how ya play it.

"Couldn't you tell by how young I looked?"

"I just thought you aged well." Tifa remarked. I face palmed.

"Well since you just barley pass the age requirements, I guess you can help with the reactor too." Better than getting shot in my opinion

"Fine, but I want payment too!"

"Nu uh not you too!" Barret was back to being angry.

"I need a little incentive here." I said while rubbing my thumb and index finger together. The large man slammed his fist on the nearest table.

"FINE! How much do you want." I smiled.

"A place to sleep for two nights." Everyone in the room looked at me like I was crazy. I really wish I had a camera for all the times they would bug out.

"That's it? No gil or free drinks or anything." Tifa asked.

"Listen I don't care what it is either, I'll sleep under a table if I have to but I'm low on gil and I just want to lay down on something other that the cold ground, hardwood is better in my opinion." Barret didn't even have to think.

"Deal."

"I guess we should get some rest then before the mission ." Cloud finally spoke up.

"You two can go down with the machine, I'll tell Jessie and Wedge about you." Biggs said before he pressed a button and descended.

"Get some sleep you two, you'll need it." Tifa pitched before me and cloud jumped down into the basement. I noted Jessie working on the timer mechanics while Wedge was about to doze off.

"That over there is Jessie, she is our resident genius." Biggs introduced. "I just do the a little of the tech stuff." She turned and waved with a smile.

"That guy lazing about is Wedge." Biggs pointed. Immediately Wedge wined.

"Come on Biggs, you know its almost time to sleep."

"And that;s everyone in AVALANCHE, now we don't have be-" I cut him off. I just wanted some sleep and I could sleep anywhere, I've been on simple carpet,hardwood, tile you name it, and I was cool with it. I sat in the pile like they were a bean bag and just sank in.

"You don't even need a sheet or something?" Biggs mused.

"Nope, g'night." Afterwords I heard some of them talking before I heard the distinct clank of a slab of metal on the wall to my right. In the end I was able to join AVALANCHE before anything major happened. I should consider myself so lucky. Now I just have to keep a cool head and think things through before anything happens. I just hope I don't change everything for the worse.

* * *

><p><strong>ATE<strong>

Steps were echoing through the semi busy halls of the Shinra building. One man was walking with a little more intent than he normally did. He had been studying the data since the research team came back with the results while he made his routine examinations. It wasn't his specialty but being the head of the science department meant Hojo had to approve of all specimen and scientific happenings that were to be used and he had to carefully monitor every test so as not to let errors occur among the captives.

However Hojo specifically requested to examine the data he held. It was simply an energy reading, only the lower scientists said that there was a miss calculation in the machine along the line. He couldn't by that. After all, it said that there was an energy output larger than if everyone of Shinra's mako reactors had cataclysmic melt downs, and yet it was in such a compressed state it went unnoticed to the public eye even though it only appeared a mere 200 feet from the tower itself.

"It should be impossible to put that much energy out in that state, there wasn't even any equipment to contain it, just that space the leftover energy signature was in. And the others said people hadn't seen any large machinery nearby." He mumbled out loud.

Hojo grumbled. He was a genius and yet he couldn't figure out how the anomaly occurred. He checked the private lower levels of the tower and found his greatest works clone still in his comatose sleep. If it wasn't Sephiroth than who? He would have to send the readings back through the department to get a better handle on the data. Hojo finally stopped on the 67th floor, He was in the specimen containment area and looked to his left. Inside was an animal that seemed a hybrid of a canine and feline, it had a scar over one of its eyes and a tail that had a flame tip. Hojo smiled and rubbed the glass the creature was in.

"I could do with a few more tests from you...but I want the other one, the Ancient. If she hadn't run with her child I could be doing more than taking your samples." He was depressed at the thought. The man frowned at the thought. He always regretted not taking more precautions in the event of the Ancients escape. Gasts wife and child were smarter than he gave them credit for. He brightened up though when he went and looked to his right. He looked inside and a smile crept on his face. His greatest work, Jenova. He rubbed the glass pane with more intent than the last. But he noticed something out the corner of his eye though, he looked closer in the pane to find that a small part of Jenovas wing pulsated. Hojo's eyes widened. Jenova had been in the same state for years now since Sephiroth's death.

"You there!" Hojo yelled to the assistant that had been placed to keep tabs on the specimens. "Professor Hojo, what do you need?" "Why was I not informed of the change in one of my specimens?" Hojo all but hissed.

"Don't worry professor, the change was minimal, something not worth noting. I do have a copy of the data chart though if you want it sir." The madman snatched the chart away and overlooked the data, anything that came to Jenova couldn't be over looked. The smallest change, the most minute shift, and he had to know. He analyzed it only to find that there was a 2% increase in neural activity inside the body. More than she had in the last few years. That didn't make sense! Jenova had been in this state since I started my Reunion experiment. Why she would act now doesn't correlate with my data...unless. Realization dawned on him and Hojo's smile almost grew feral, Jenova was reacting to the anomaly from 32 hours ago.

"Assistant." the man looked up "I want a full report on the data I received before as well as an examination of one of my specimens increased activity immediately!" The assistant stumbled before he ran off to the laboratory's, while Hojo stayed next to Jenovas container. Snickering to himself before he took another look inside. Gazing at the seemingly still body.

"I'll find out what has you so excited."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N well now I'm actually happy how this is helping even though I've been writing this on whims more than planning really. Now what I have been debating lately is whether I should switch this into a 3rd person POV story or keep it 1st with the ATE system, if I can find a compromise I might add stuff that is important as ATE's and then have 3rd person POV's to add more detail, I'm not to sure how I should go with this.

* * *

><p>Ch 3<p>

"Hey Nathan, you need to get up." Tifa was shaking my shoulder. I tried to open my eyes, I didn't have any screams or voices this time...maybe it was all in my head at first. it would make sense.

"juss figh more minuss." I sank deeper into my throne of boxes.

"I can't believe you can enjoy sleeping like that, isn't it uncomfortable?" Even with my eyes closed I could tell she was shaking her head.I sat up and stretched before I answered.

"No, I can adjust well to this kind of stuff."

"Did you grow up that way?"She asked. I shook my head.

"No, I had a decent bed back home. I can just get used to this kind of stuff I guess."

"Where do you come from? If you don't mind me asking." Man everyone wants to know everyone's business around here.

"I come from Medeel. Its a small town on an island south of this continent."

"And you came all the way to Midgar for employment?"

"Yeah, I heard story's about how big it was and how a lot of people would go there to start anew"

She looked down. "Sorry but often those story's are a little embellished. Often people who come here to get rich quick wind up poor, and those who want decent employment often work lower jobs for little pay."

"Guess I came here for nothin huh?" I faked being depressed when she pat my back.

"Hey at least you have a job now that gets you a few nights of sleep in a room...even if it was forced." Now she seems down now.

"Its alright, I was always an unlucky kid. Speaking of today, are you coming with us?" She shook her head.

"I won't be able to help, The bar is closed since its so late, but I have to keep an eye on Marlene. but I'm sure all of you can handle it." We both walked over and rose on the pinball/elevator machine. Up top we found Barret, Cloud, and the rest of the gang hanging at the door while Tifa was cleaning some glass cups.

"We need to get to the train station in an hour, so you need to pick up some supplies before we go so you." Cloud said. We both exited the bar and went into the shops while Barret and the rest of the crew went off to the station. The only place we really needed to go though was the materia shop.

"And how are we going to pay for them?" I asked. He raised his hand and held up a few bills.

"I have a bit of gil to get around three, I'll take two and you take one."

"Why the fuck am I drawing short stick here?" I groaned.

"Because I have experience with materia while you probably barely used one" He said in all his smugness. Seriously I liked Cloud I really did, but this version is total bull dude. He has all the courage and power of Zack, with all the coldness and douchebagery of seph.

"Fine" We eventually ended up at the run down shack

."What kind do you want?" I looked around the run down shelves before pointing at a sign.

"Get me a fire." I knew he was going to get ice and bolt so we should have a better magic balance if we add fire to the mix. A few minutes later Cloud came out and tossed me my materia, I fumbled with it a little before I had a good grip. I was surprised when I found it was about the sized of a large gumball. When I looked at it I found it had a warm aura as well as an image of a flame on the inside. I was a little peeved though. I nor Cloud had the gil to purchase any bangles and I found out as amazing as my sword was, it didn't have any materia slots so I couldn't use any elemental based attacks with it.

Well at least it makes my life easier if I can tell what spells the cast. We got back with just enough time to catch the train. Barret's plan was that he, Cloud, and I would be on top of the train to avoid suspicion with their weapons while everyone else stays in-between the cabs. I mention the security system that plays later in the game, but Jessie came over and handed us some key stayed on the train for about five stops before we finally stopped at the reactor. Jessie and Biggs got rid of the guards on the outside before the three of us jumping off the train, Cloud being the more stylish of me and Barret. He waved to us both.

"Come on noobs, this way." Barret ordered. I held in a laugh. Me and Cloud were following behind him with me picking the guards pockets for a couple of potions. When we were close to the door though a couple Shinra troops burst out.

"There are the intruders! Take them out!" They were about to pull out their sub machine guns and fire before Cloud with a sudden burst of speed took the two out with a single swipe of his buster sword. He looked back and smile at his. Yeah big deal you could take them down with one slash in the game too. We ran through a few corridors before we ended up at the gate that Jessie was trying to unlock the door.

"Wow! You used to be in SOLDIER alright...Not everyday you find one in AVALANCHE." Biggs stiffened at the mans words. "SOLDIER? Aren't they the enemy? Whats he doing in AVALANCHE?"

"Hold it Jessie he WAS in SOLDIER. He quit them and is now one of us." Biggs reassured.

"Actually, I didn't even catch your name."

"...Cloud."

"Cloud eh?. I'm..." He cut off Biggs.

"I don't care what your names are, once this job is over I'm outta here" He said sternly. Biggs seemed down after being told that, I might as well brighten him up.

"Hey Biggs at least I remember your name right? And by the way I'm Nathan." He had a bit of a smile.

"By the way...sorry for getting you in this, I know it must be weird to be forced to help a terrorist organization." Yeah no kidding dude.

"I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, its not your fault. Its the story of my life." Barret decided to show up right then

."The hell are you all doin! I thought I told you never to move in a group!" Honestly I didn't even listen to the plan he told us earlier, I knew what was going to happen so why bother ya know?

"Our targets the North Mako Reactor. We'll meet on the bridge in front of it." At that moment Jessie unlocked the door and the trio ran through. Before we could though Barret stopped in the middle of the door

."Ex-SOLDIER huh, huh? Don't trust ya!" He took a look at me next

"And don't go thinkin your off scot-free either!" Barret ran off afterwords. I caught out the corner of my eye Cloud looking at the reactor. When he was done he gave me a nod and we rant to the reactor. Much like the FF7 map though it was really short. We got to the bridge and Wedge went to the door opposite of us. We took a left and ended up in a room with the other three freedom fighters standing around for us.

"Yo! This your first time in a reactor?" Cloud thought for a moment

"No, after all, I did work for Shinra, y'know" Barret waved him off.

"The Planets full of Mako energy, People here use it every day." Cloud did his usual "I don't care about this" shrug, apparently Barret was well acquainted with it.

"Its the life blood of this planet. But Shinra keeps suckin' the blood out with these weird machines."

"I'm not here for a lecture, lets just hurry." Cloud crossed his arms and seemed annoyed. I groaned. Honestly this is what everyone had to put up with?

"That's it! Your coming with me from now on."

"Cloud dude you need to lighten up, like seriously." He waved me off while we ran through the code locked doors. However, going down. The hallways we ran into one of the security bots, those little tentacle squid fire casters.

"Hey guys let me handle this." I moved ahead, I really wanted to test out my new materia.

"Just hurry, we don't need more security on our ass." Barret things started towards us and I pulled the fire materia out of my pocket, I held it out and focused on the warmth that enveloped my hand. In a flash I saw a lone fireball hovering in front of my hand.

"Fire!" the small ball shot straight at the bot and got its circuits good, it didn't go down though. Guess I still have a long way from casting powerful shit. I pulled out my sword and ran to slash the machine into bits. I sheathed it and saw Cloud and Barret nodding their heads

."s'alright"

"Decent for a traveler." Both Barret and Cloud commented. I frowned.

"Come on, we gunna blow a reactor up or what?" Jessie then ran up and deciphered some coded door again, inside was a decently roomed elevator.

"Could you press that button over there?" she pointed to the down arrow."I got it." I pressed it "Goin down."

We started descending. After a few seconds Barret spoke up. "Little by little the reactors'll drain out all the life. And that'll be that."

"Not my problem." Cloud leaned against the wall.

"The planets dyin', Cloud!" Oh dear Barret is angry again, what ever shall we do?

"The only thing I care about is finishin' this job before security and the Roboguards come." Barret turned around and tensed up real bad, I could see why. Dick Cloud kinda sucked a little more than Brooder Cloud.

"And what about you?" Barret looked at me with cold eyes.

"Like I said they provide energy and we need it." I waved it off, i didn't want to get in the middle of this. Barret persisted.

"Even at the cost of the planet?" I sighed.

"Do you even know how energy dependance works? If we suddenly stop it would take alternative energy at least a few years for them to reach the same output as Mako." I remembered In AC they had to drill for oil and even after two years Edge was a pretty pitiful place when it came to tensed again but not out of anger, he seemed to see the underlying truth to what I said.

"I guess you have a point."

"Hey big guy, if it were up to me I'd ween off the Mako and onto the reserves so it would take less time."

"At least he has a good head on his shoulders" Cloud chimed in. Barret regained his rage face right when we got to our floor, we sprinted off and rundown the stairs to get to the pipe room. Jessie was standing in her normal spot. While the three of us started to go lower. When I got down the first ladder though I felt a wretch in my stomach. I finally realized I was a few hundred feet from a Mako bath.

Don't look down...just keep your eyes and your balance straight. Walking instead of running, I made it in twice the time to get down to the long walkway to the reactor core. When we got close Cloud bent over and picked up the restore materia left there. For what reason It was there it will forever remain a mystery to me. He tossed it to me.

"Shouldn't you keep it?" I held it out.

"You seem adapt enough with materia than your sword. It will help you more than me." I pocketed it and we got to the big...furnace...thing to place the bomb

."When we blow this place, this ain't gunna be more than a hunka junk." Barret pulled from under his vest a packaged shaped bomb.

"Cloud, you set the bomb."He raised an eyebrow.

"Shouldn't you do it?"

"Jus' do it! I gotta make sure the both of ya don't pull nuthin."

"Oh come on, I've already been here fighting machines, I think no matter what I do I couldn't get back on Shinra's good side." I whined. He just huffed and put the bomb in Clouds hands.

"Fine." When he bent to place the bomb he seemed to bug out for a few seconds until her focused back up and looked at the two of us.

"Whats wrong?" Barret asked.

"Huh?" Was Cloud's intelligent reply. Barret just got angrier.

"Whats wrong Cloud? Hurry up!"

"Yeah...sorry." He bent back down and pressed a few buttons. When he connected a wire I heard a small ticking noise. Right then a large alarm sounded. Cloud looked up and narrowed his eyes.

"Heads up, here they come." He pulled out his buster sword and jumped back. When I looked I saw the guard scorpion clutching onto the side of the wall when it let go and started falling to the platform. It smashed down and picked itself back up. Barret readied his gun while I pulled out the fire materia. I can't cut it, but I can a least I can melt its metal. The scorpion pulled its scan maneuver on Cloud. He jumped out of the way when It started to shoot its rifles at him. Barret raised his arm and started firing off at the thing from the side. The machine paid him little attention since his bullets only dented it.

"Damn, tougher than it looks.""Let me try!" I help out the fire again and repeated my earlier process. I was successful in launching another small fireball, but it only seemed to heat up the metal than damage it. Well shit...wait

"Barret!, shoot at the area I heat up okay?" He looked over and nodded. I focused even harder and pulsed out fireball after fireball. Eventually the metal on the things back was really warped and I could feel the effects of casting so much. My head was dizzy and my vision was getting spotty.

"Now!" Barret roared as his bullets hit the warped machine's back and actually cause a hole to be formed. The thing finally took us for a threat and started to stab at the ground at us with its tail.

"Keep movin." Barret started strafing while I barely rolled out the way. Cloud would slash at its front legs every now and again but its steel was tougher than he expected. He started to cast lighting with hitting the machine made it stumble for a time before it resumed its attacks. Damn it how the hell do we do enough damage? I looked and saw the sensor thing in its head move back and forth. Suddenly an Idea formed in my head.

"Cloud, keep casting lighting, Barret start shooting its sensors out!" They both only grunted in reply. Barret started spraying bullets towards its head while Cloud would alternate hitting it with Lighting and slashing at a specific leg to trip it up. The plan went well for all of two seconds before the thing started shuttering and lifted up its tail. My eyes grew in fear.

"GUYS STOP NOW!" Both ignored me and Barret got his one good shot in while cloud got that last cut in the leg. Immediately the things Tail charged a beam and started spraying it all over the field. All three of us felt only the heat from the thing and it burned like hell. When it was done we had all rolled towards each other.

"We can't take a hit like that again." Cloud looked tucked out as did Barret. And I could feel the fatigue getting to me.

"Don't worry, I got this." Barret suddenly stood up and held his gun out. Only this time I saw he held a different trigger that before. I could see The barrel start radiating heat and glow in its chamber as he kept his aim.

"I can't let you do all the work." Cloud readied his buster sword at a down angle at his side. MY eyes widened at the realization of the situation. Both were about to do their limit smirked before he went charging towards the scorpion, dodging its rifle fire until he got close, he then jumped FUCKING 10 FEET IN THE AIR and brought his sword down with all the force he could muster from his Braver limit break. He ended up cutting off one rifle arm and another leg. Barret smirked before he launched His hyper heated Big Shot at the head of the machine and cause a huge burning dent in its optics. To say I was in awe was an understatement."Shit its still trying to get up" Barret noticed.

"Dammit we didn't finish it off." Cloud growled from his kneeling position.I saw that the large mech was raising its tail again and I stood up. I was getting fearful that we were going to get killed before anything good in the story happened. Just then I felt a powerful pulsing from my side and saw my sword was now completely glowing purple. I reach to pull it out but when I touched it my mind flashed to when I was at home. I was playing another old school game, Star Ocean 2. I was in the middle of fighting the first boss when the main character used a powerful slash attack that sent shock-waves at its opponent. In an instant I was back in the fight and I looked at the guard scorpion charging its laser, with Barret and Cloud both having the same fearful expression I had held.

"Not this time you fucking piece of junk! Have a taste of this!" I held onto the sword in its sheath and got into a ready position. I drew the sword and yelled out.

"AIR-SLASH!" I pulled my sword out and when I made a slash using the same motion as the character in the game, then appeared a huge distortion in the air head towards the large machine. When it reached the thing the shock-wave cause a clean cut straight through the middle of the thing. It split when it exploded right in front of us. Cloud was bewildered while Barret had his mouth open. I was a combination of the both. We all hobbled together to inspect our combined attacks effects."Damn that was good" Barret finally broke the silence.

"That was a decent technique." Cloud smiled a little.I was still freaking out on the inside that I had done a limit break. I mean I'm just a regular guy. Shit like that ain't supposed to happen. I looked at my sword again and saw it was pulsating lightly purple. I had another flash in my head and saw a different game. A little ninja was wielding two swords. One was a huge broad sword while the other was my katana. I flashed back again and realized what I was was fusion. The sword from Brave Fencer Musashi that allowed you to copy enemy techniques or skills to benefit yourself. I had a huge grin at that thought. I had something to contend with now.

"Uh guys" Barret and me looked over to see a worried Cloud. "We only have ten minutes before this thing detonates.

…...

…

"FUCK THIS I'M OUTTA HERE!" I started booking it with both men behind me trying to catch up. We climbed the latter and stumbled over the pipes. I didn't care for the height anymore I just didn't want to get blown up. We made it to the other ladder and started to the door when I noticed Jessie with a worried expression and kneeling.

"Shit you okay?" I ran over and helped her." Yeah leg got stuck is all.

"I helped her maneuver it it out of the hole, when she muttered a thanks I snatched the potion that was left behind and ran to catch up with Cloud and Barret. Going up the steps I found a lot of fighter bot parts and security personnel laying dead around the place. When I got to the top I saw they both just got to the elevator with Jessie in back

."Room for one more?" I rolled in while we started to ascend the shaft. We reached the top and Jessie bolted to decipher the door, right after that we had Biggs decipher his when everyone started to book it out to the walkway with Wedge in the distance waving to us. Jessie tried to run fast but tripped halfway through. Me and Cloud helped here up and started to the door when we could here the electric cackles behind us. We entered Wedges door just when the whole place went to hell. You could feel the shock-waves go through the whole building as the explosion shook a few minuets everything calmed down. With Cloud and Barret standing around while I was sitting down catching my breath on a piece of debris.

"That should keep the planet going...at least a little longer."

"Yeah" Wedge pitched in.

"And you guys act like its just a regular fucking Tuesday... you guys are dicks." I huffed, still out of breath. Which made everyone chuckle a little bit. Jessie stood from he debris pile.

"Okay, now everyone get back." Everyone crowded around me as the next explosive got rid of a huge chunk of wall for us all to jump out of. Everyone did pretty well except Wedge who ran with a small fire on his pants. It was a little funny."Alright, lets get out of here. Rendezvous at sector eight station." everyone split off except for Cloud and Barret.

"H-Hey." Cloud yelled but Barret interrupted.

"If its about your money, save it till weir back at the hideout." Barret runs off leaving Cloud a little dejected.

"Hey dude. You need to calm down. Enjoy the finer things in life, like not getting blown up twice." He shook his head and motioned for me to follow him. As we ran through the streets I noticed everything was in general chaos. I noticed Cloud look to his right and see a girl brushing dust off her dress. It was Aeris, in all her sunshine in the darkness of the world attitude. At least we had something to brighten up our day.

"Excuse me, what happened?" She asked. Cloud walked was in thought for a second before he responded.

"Nothing...hey listen...you don't see many flowers around here." She smiled.

"Oh these? Do you like them? There only a gil." Cloud looked down at the basket of flowers.

"...I guess I'll take one." Cloud handed over the one gil coin and got a very nice sunflower.

"Thank you." Cloud said.

"Excuse me, but could I get a few of those flowers too?" I pulled out five gil coins and held out my hand.

"of cours..." Aeris breath caught in her throat when she got a good look at me. I felt a little self conscious since she was staring at me so intently.

"I'm sorry, is something wrong?" I asked. She shook her head.

"Its nothing important you just seemed a little...never mind, just take the flowers." She then took the five gil and and handed me my flowers before she walked off at a hurried pace

."Okay now that was a little weird." I said. Cloud snorted.

"Maybe its all the soot on your face, you seem pretty suspicious with it covering most of you, at least I only have a little." I rubbed my cheek and found my fingers were covered in total black.

"Come on we're going to miss the train" We start running again until we get to a clearing.

"HOLD IT" I turned to see to men in uniforms yelling at muttered something about Shinra soldiers.

"Cloud we have to leave now or we are screwed." He nodded and we ran with them trying to shoot from the ally way. I looked to our right and saw three more turn in our direction.

"Just keep running." Cloud and me took a sharp left only to find another group of Mps. When we tried to double back we found all of our fronts covered.

"That's as far as you go." One stepped up.

"I don't have time to be messing with you guys." Cloud started backing up to the wall I was on. In the distance I could hear the train...but it seemed really far off. I needed to by us more time. An idea popped up in my head. It was something I thought was odd in the game. Materia was an extremely powerful force of magic, so why couldn't people try creative uses for them?

"Enough babbling. Get them!" I pulled out the fire materia and clasped it near my mouth. God I hope this works...well if it doesn't I'll at least sound cool.

"Dragon Breath!" I concentrated on the materia and took a deep breath, when the guards we close I blew as hard as I could into it. The small ball appearing in my hand suddenly became a small stream of flame which I quickly started waving around. All the guards were taken back and were either burned or pulling out their guns.

"Nathan! Jump for it!" I turned and hoped the wall with Cloud, and managed to stay on the train as it went down the tunnel.

(Meanwhile)

The rest of the gang were in the cargo section of the train. A depressing air among them since their two newest recruits weren't around.

"Cloud and Nathan never made It to the train." Wedge broke the silence.

"...Do you think they were killed?" Biggs had a worrying expression

"Hell no!" Barret shut him right up.

"Cloud...Nathan..."Everyone looked up as they heard a bump

* * *

><p>"FUCK MY HEAD!" I tried to rub it but Cloud kept pulling me.<p>

"I told you to duck."

* * *

><p>"Say, do you think their both...Going to fight to the end for AVALANCHE?" Biggs was trying to lighten up the mood.<p>

"The hell I know? Do I look Like a mind reader?" He slammed his fist.

"If y'all weren't such screw ups." Barret was feeling a twinge of guilt himself. He let two guys new to Midgar without any decent directions and now having blown up a reactor to find the station on their own.

"Hey Barret! What about our money." A single slam shut Wedge up.

"uh nothin...sorry."

* * *

><p>Cloud and me were just a few steps away from the door. When another sign tried to speed by and knocked Cloud back.<p>

"Ahhh...!"

"I thought you said to duck?" I slammed down on the roof to dodge another.

"Keep laughing it up kid, at least you have those goggles to see." He fell once more before we got onto the side of the door. Cloud upend it from the top and did his flippy trick thing from the game. I opted to get in by sliding down. Only to lose my footing and trip in on my face.

"Fuck my life." My words were unheard though.

"CLOUD! NATHAN!" Everyone except Barret brushed a little dust of his sleeve.

"Looks like I'm a little late."

"I told you to ask for directions Clouds." I smiled while I moved my goggles to down my neck. Thank god I kept them I would have been blinded by those lights if it weren't in my pocket.

"You damn right your late! Come waltzing in here, making a big scene!"

"Its no big deal, just what I always do." You know this is Clouds first mission as a mercenary. How can he think he's that awesome?

"SHIT!, Having everyone worried like that, you two don't give a damn bout no one but yourselves." Barret yelled.

"Awwww come on Barret will a hug make everything better?" I smiled.

"hmmm, you were worried about us?" Barret was thrown back.

"WHA, that's it I'm takin it outta your money, hot stuff!" He looked over.

"AND YOU!"

"Come on Barret, you know I care I just like to ruffle your feathers." He walked up to the front.

"WAKE UP! We're moving out. Follow me." He jumped over some cargo and went into the next cab. Wedge went next, telling Cloud how good he was, along with Biggs who said we would do better.

"Be careful, I'll shut this." I turned and saw Jessie close the door. When she turned she took a good look at both of us.

"Oh guys, your faces are pitch black!" She wiped both of out faces a little with her gloves.

"That's better...and hey, thanks for helping me at the reactor guys." She jumped over as well.

Cloud and myself nodded before we went into the next heard the announcement saying it was like 12:30 or something. Inside I saw the trio hanging up front with Cloud being called over by Jessie. I took this as down time so I sat in the seat across from Barret. At one point small alarms and lights started flashing, making me jump in my seat. Barret was laughing away

."Don't worry kid, the ID ya got is gunna make sure your alright." Sure enough the lights went out and everyone calmed down. Cloud was walking over when Barret started talking again.

"Look you can see the surface now...this city don't have no night or day...if the plate weren't there we could see the sky.." Cloud leaned over and looked out the window.

"A floating city, what unsettling scenery."

"Huh didn't expect to here that outta someone like you, your jus full of surprises." He got up and walked over to the front.

"The upper world...a city on a plate. Its cuz of that fucking 'pizza' that the people underneath are suffering." He had this remorseful look on his face

"And the city below is full of polluted air...and to top that off the reactor keeps draining up all the energy."

"The castle in the sky isn't as amazing as everyone hoped it would be." I chimed men glanced at me before continuing their conversation.

"Why doesn't everyone move onto the plate?" Cloud asked. Barret shrugged.

"Dunno, maybe cuz they ain't got no money or maybe...cuz they love there land, no matter how polluted it gets." Cloud looked out the window again.

"I know, no one lives in the slums because they don't want to. Its like this train, It can't go anywhere except where the tracks take it."

"Not true, with enough determination anything can get off its forced path." I chimed in, I know for a fact if you speed a train off a turn it will keep moving...I better not say that's why I said that since it was idiot logic.

"You really believe that?' Barret asked. I remembered one of the things that was supposed to happen was Aeris death, but even that could be changed. My arms tightened up at the thought.

"Every person tells a story, not just their own either. And every narrator changes the story just a little, which can mean the difference between being stuck or moving on your own." Everyone nodded their head at my comment. I guess a bunch of freedom fighters would get what I say.

"By the way." Cloud turned and sat

"What kind of sword do you have?" I was confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, The technique you used to kill the machine was something I've never heard of, also you don't have any materia slots for the blade."

"Yeah, that was a little odd" Barret noted. I started sweating, The sword wasn't from this game so it had powers that didn't match with how people fought here. At least I am a good liar.

"Its made from materia." I unsheathed it.

"Fusion here is embedded with an enemy skill materia." Biggs made a low whistle.

"Don't here much about materia based weapons and armor anymore, well besides ribbons." I quickly thought of an excuse.

"My dad used to work in Midgar, he helped manufacture the broadswords that the SOLDIERS used, this was one of his side projects."

"Damn, and you didn't get into the business with him?" Barret asked .I shook my head.

"He quit around twenty years ago, he still knew the tricks of the trade so he made weapons and sold them to get around, he eventually moved and met my mother in Medeel."

"And he just gave it to you?" Cloud asked.

"...Not really, he and ma died around two years ago, I kept it on me since it was the last thing he made."

"Sorry..I didn't mean to press." Cloud recoiled.

"Its fine, They were good parents." There was a minute of silence

."Hey, you said it was enemy skill materia right?" Biggs asked.

"Yeah."

"Why does it glow purple?" Fuck didn't think that through.

"It was only the base, a few speed materia as well as some magic were thrown in since it is hard sometimes to learn from enemy's.

""So the Air-slash was something you saw once?" Cloud asked.

"Yep, pretty neat ability when the time arises, I had average strength, so fusions compensation for speed and magic really fit into my style."

"But what about that fire breathing you did earlier?" Cloud noted. Barret looked at me.

"Fire breathing?" I waved my hand.

"I always apply materia differently than how they are normally used, versatility was also one of my specialties, when you try to get to Midgar sometimes its not if you DO a technique more as HOW you do it." Everyone nodded and went about their business. Damn everyone was sharper than you could take them for, no one wanted a hole in a story. They wanted to make sure you could be train ride was a little boring. I wanted to listen to my IPod but I decided against it. If these guys only had PHS' then my cell was already a good ten years ahead since it had WI-FI and a built in keypad. I didn't need to make it harder to lie to them. Instead I opted on whistlin. It was kinda funny to see Barret tapping his foot to the beat of it, and Cloud bob his head a little. After a few more minutes we got to the sector seven station. We all ran out and huddled together near the lam post.

"Everyone get to the hideout." Barret said before we all started jogging to the bar. Cloud and me were in the back of the group so when we got to the slums we saw a huge group of people get kicked out by Barret with Tifa coming bowing and apologizing.

"Heh heh, You wanna meet your little baby?" Barret smirked. I almost busted a gut at the joke

."Just get out of my way." Cloud was not about to play any jokes apparently

."Just calm down, we don't need people suspecting us...go on in." Cloud went up when I stopped in front of Barret.

"Here man." I pulled out the flowers I had and handed them to Barret.

"And what the hell am I gunna do with these?"

"Oh I dunno, maybe give them to your daughter as a present? After all, her father is in a very dangerous business. It would be nice to receive a gift every now and again from her dad." He looked down at the flowers and back up at me.

"You know Nate, your a decent guy."

"Its nothing, I just like to do nice things."

"We need more people like you in these slums Nate. I really mean that."

"AWWWW you look like a big ol teddy bear when you say that,." He chuckled and walked into the bar, I came in a few seconds later and saw Cloud sitting awkwardly on the table. I looked and saw Marlene and Tifa both with some flowers. Marlene ran up and hugged my legs though.

"Thank you mister River sir." I smiled and looked at Barret who smirked.

"You thought I was gunna take all the credit?" I shook my head and patted Marlene's. She ran of and Barret picked her up and went down the elevator along with the trio and Cloud going down. I waved to Tifa and jumped down too.

"Yo Cloud, there something I wanna ask. Was their anyone from SOLDIER fighting us today." She asked. He shook his head.

"None, I'm positive." He dead panned.

"You sound pretty sure." Barret said.

"If there were any you wouldn't be standing here." Cloud stated coldly.

"Don't go thinkin you bad cuz you was in SOLDIER." Biggs kept Barret back from getting to Cloud, only to be knocked into my pile of boxes.

"Biggs if you want a nap you have to ask to use my bed." I joked.

"Whatever Nathan." He groaned.

"Yeah your strong, probably all those SOLDIER guys are. But don't forget your skinny ass works for AVALANCHE now. Don't get any ideas about hanging with Shinra." Barret yelled. Cloud turned and he looked PISSED

"Staying with Shinra? You asked me a question and I answered it, that's all." Cloud walked and got right in Barret's face.

"I'm going upstairs. I want to talk about my money." He walked only to bump into Tifa.

"Wait Cloud.

""Tifa let him go...looks like he still misses Shinra." Barret hissed. Cloud only scrunched his face.

"SHUT UP, I don't care about Shinra or SOLDIER!" He walked to the machine.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't care about AVALANCHE or the planet neither." He then went back up top. Everyone was silent until Tifa decided to go up as well.

"Bad move dude." I broke the silence.

"That was a little harsh Barret" Wedged put in.

"Doesn't matter to me, he can deal with whatever he wants, since he's SOLDIER and all." He went back to beating the punching bag."Barret you don't get the severity of Clouds situation." He looked at me.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"How often do you see a retired SOLDIER First Class?" I asked him. He pondered when I spoke again.

"Damn near zero, Shinra is very protective of their security and there assets and a First Class would be deemed an important asset."

"Nathan...what are you getting at..." Jessie spoke up.I paused before I spoke again. If I'm going to be on this team then everyone will have to get along. Otherwise people like Cloud and Barret would tear each others throats before we Could stop Sephiroth.

"He's a fugitive to them...Shinra probably has a warrant for his head. At least that's how I think it is." Barret looked down after hearing what I said. He then went and started climbing the pipes up to give Cloud his money.

"You really think he's on the run?" Jessie looked worried

."Almost positive...but I have been wrong before even when I was 100% sure about something." Even though I knew I was right since the game had events orchestrated before I came here. The elevator went up and came down with Cloud. He waled to his side of the wall and sat down. I guess he needs his rest for tomorrow mornings attack. You know blowing up a gigantic power-station really tires you out. I felt my eyelids get heavy as sleep overtook me.

(Next day)

I woke up early even though I only had about five hours of sleep. Everyone had breakfast and the trio left while Cloud,Barret, and Tifa were standing around. I was on the bar-stool enjoying another glass of lemonade.

"Our targets the sector five reactor. Head for the station first. I'll fill you in on the train...and Cloud, before the next mission I wanna ask you something" Barret asked. Cloud raised an eyebrow.

" I don't really know how to use materia! I want you to teach me how." Cloud looked down.

"You wouldn't understand."

"So that's what makes them guys in SOLDIER so great huh!" I spun around.

"Barret don't worry about it, I'll give you a crash course." In less than ten minutes I gave him a basic rundown like the games tutorial, but I added in how you have to concentrate as well as be calm.

"I think I get it...but you should hold onto the materia." I shrugged.

"I'm coming too, and Cloud, the weapon shop owner said he wants to give something to you. Don't forget." She walked back to the counter.

"Marlene take care of the shop while we're gone." Wait wait wait back the fuck up? I didn't question this when it was a game but seriously? You leave a four year old in charge of a bar?

"How is this in anyway a good idea?" They looked at me.

"You guys are letting a little girl keep tabs on a bar? Is anyone thinking right now?" They all looked down at the point I was making.

"Then I guess your gunna have to protect her while we're gone then Nathan." Tifa smiled.

"WAIT WHAT?"

"You take care of my daughter while we are gone. Good bye Nate!" They all left before I could get a word in edge wise. Marlene came up and took my face for one as depression rather than shock.

"Its okay, I'm used to it." Marlene said while cleaning a glass.

"No no Its my fault...just not used to Midgar yet." I got up and decided to help Marlene with the shop. I cleaned the dishes first when it was open while we were gone as well as get some liquors out the cellar to restock what wasn't in the counter. Eventually it got to the point where I was just messing around with my fire and restore materias, but even then I started messing with random objects in the bar.

"Please don't play with fire fire extinguisher." God Damn it Marlene was on my ass today.

"I'm only looking." Actually trying to figure out how to shoot it when the instructions are rusted off.

"Its too old, the only thing that could work is the fire blanket." She wandered off to do whatever four year old's do in a bar.I took a look and found the fire blanket in a metal case. I pulled out my materia and cast a small fire spell, sure enough it help up against the flames. Something clicked in my head at that moment. I folded the blanket up and put it under my shirt.

"Marlene I'm going to get a few things for when everyone comes back!" I yelled and went out the door. Following what knowledge soon I got to the weapons shop. Right next to me being the counter to my left and the deafening firing rang to my right.

"Hey what do ya need?" The owner behind the counter asked

."I want a bangle, and I want to ask if you make custom accessory's." From the fights yesterday I pocketed around 200 gil so I was at 400.

"That will be 160 gil, and yes I do make some custom weapons."

"I want one fighting glove, however could you use this as a secondary layer?" I pulled out the blanket and the weapons store owner looked it over.

"It can be done, in fact its easy enough I can get it to you in a few minutes." He said feeling the blanket.

"Good now how much do I owe you?"

"For just patching it 100, but if you want some good quality to it, it'll will be 150."

"I'll give you 240 gil if you put a lot of effort into it." His eyes brightened up at the extra incentive.

"One flame resistant glove coming right up." He took the blanket and a pair of gloves from the back and went into a side room. It took the guy a good twenty minutes before he came back out.

"Here you are, I even made the other glove the same since your paying a decent amount." I took both and slipped them on. They went past my wrists but were easy to move in.

"What are you going to use them for anyway? I've heard of using these blankets to get flame dampening armor, but not the way you seem to want them for."

"They are for an experiment, and if everything goes right then these baby's are going to be one of the most powerful thins in my arsenal." I paid the man the rest of my gil, clasped the bangle on with fire inside of it, and got back to the bar. I was scolded by Marlene for taking something that could help in case of a fire. She backed down when I said I would buy another one later. After that the day seem to go by with the same routine as before.

"Could you clean the floor, its hard for me to do."

"No problem." I got a mop and bucket and started. However it got boring my better judgment I pulled out my IPod and set it on the table. I turned the speakers to as loud as they could be and chose a song to mop to. The violins and the opening beat got me to cleaning when I started sing the song as well.

"I used to rule the world, seas would rise when I gave the word. Now in the morning I sleep alone, sweep the streets I used to own"

I was swaying back and forth and stomping my foot to get almost the exact sound out of the floor to the beat.

"I used to roll the dice, feel the fear in my enemy's eyes. Listen as the crowd would sing, now the old king is dead, long live the king" I heard a shuffle behind me but I ignored it.

"One minute I held the key, next the walls were closed on me. And I discovered that my castles stand, upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand" I really started to get into it. I was swaying completely to the beat while cleaning the floor. Pretty silly, but I was enjoying myself.

"I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing, Roman cavalry choirs are singing. Be my mirror, my sword and shield, my missionaries in a foreign field. For some reason I can't explain, once you'd gone there was never...Never an honest word. And that was when I ruled the world" I really started vocalizing after this. I could feel every note course through my veins. And much like the song almost half the floor was done.

"It was a wicked and wild wind, blew down the doors to let me in. Shattered windows and the sound of drums, people couldn't believe what I'd become. Revolutionaries wait, for my head on a silver plate, Just a puppet on a lonely string. Oh, who would ever want to be king?" I was just dancing around now. The floor was good enough.

"I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing, Roman cavalry choirs are singing. Be my mirror, my sword and shield, my missionaries in a foreign field, for some reason I can't explain I know St. Peter won't call my name. Never an honest word, but that was when I ruled the world. I Hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing, Roman cavalry choirs are singing. Be my mirror, my sword and shield, my missionaries in a foreign field. For some reason I can't explain, I know St. Peter won't call my name. Never an honest word, but that was when I ruled the world" I looked at my handy work and found the floor nearly spotless. And over by the table next to my IPod was a very shocked Marlene.

"You have a nice voice." I looked away.

"Thanks."

"Hey what is this?" She pointed to my tech.

"Something I made." I quickly lied. " Its a portable music device.

She seemed in shock an awe st the small piece of machinery. "You made it?"

"Yeah...I dabble in tech." I quickly turned the device off and tucked it in my pants.

"I'll let you listen to it again if your a good girl." Her eyes brightened up at my promise.

"Okay mister River!" She went to do what ever she was doing before. It made me smile, I always got along with kids and people older than me, it just was my personality I guess. I put away my mop and bucket and chilled on one of the benches for a time. I was relaxed until I saw Barret and Tifa walked in looking exhausted.

"Shit guys! You alright...wait...where is Cloud?" I ask knowing full well where he really was.

"Nathan...Cloud might be gone..."


	4. Chapter 4

CH 4

A/N okay I've noticed my story doesn't seem to have the same cleanliness as other story's but I'm new to the whole upload thing so I gottarevised as of 7/5/2012

* * *

><p>"I don't believe you" I stated for the fifth time since we all sat down from that dramatic entrance. Barret and Tifa had already told me about how the president was at the reactor and how the machine they fought blew up causing Cloud to fall to his death.<p>

"Nathan we saw him fall from the bridge!" Tifa was almost in tears.

"Did he fall in the Mako?" I asked even though I knew where he fell into the church...now that I think about it how the hell does a church have enough wood to not break your neck and get you to land in a flower patch that's coated in anti-impact dirt and wood.

"No, he fell from the outside bridge." She said teary eyed.

"Do you know how far he fell down?" I persisted.

"Nathan, that's not something a normal man would survive." Barret said, also depressed.

"Cloud is SOLDIER, he could survive. SOLDIER's have more resilience than anyone else. " I got up and pick up my sword from the side of the door.

"And where do you think your going?" Barret's mood changed swiftly.

"To find Cloud, he fell in Sector five, I just need to get under the reactor and I'll be able to find him." I left before they could say another word. It was easy enough getting past the guards at the front gate. Shinra didn't know my face or associated it with anyone from AVALANCHE so I could pass right through. When I exited I made a beeline for Sector five, careful to avoid any confrontations from now on with monsters or bandits of Sector six.

Taking my time I searched the giant junkyard of a sector. The game had probably progressed passed Reno attempting to capture Aeris, so they would be getting down from the large junk piles. it wasn't until around late noon I finally was out of the rubble area and was close to the church, in the distance I could see a huge yellow spike.

"CLOUD!" I ran over and yelled. He turned and widened his eyes.

"Nathan? What are you doing here?"He asked.

"Your a bitch to find you know that, Tifa and Barret came and said you fell from the reactor, they thought you were dead, I came down to get you."

"How did you know I was alive?" He questioned. I answered quickly.

"Your a SOLDIER First, I know for a fact gravity can't do anything to you guys. You all jump around like you can fly anyways." He smiled at my statement. Nothing like an ego boost to help somebody's day.

"Your right about that, but I guess I also owe it to our friend here for keeping an eye on me." He turned to show me Aeris standing back with her pole in hand, looking cautious.

"That's that flower girl from before...isn't she?" I asked dumbly. Trying not to look like I knew to much.

"Her name is Aeris, I fell on a bed of flowers when she woke me up." Cloud introduced. I stepped forwards and held out my hand.

"Nathan, nice to meet you. Hey thanks for taking care of my friend, a couple of people were worried about him and I appreciate you taking care of a complete stranger." She hesitated a little before she shook my hand for a brief moment and then retracted her hand quickly. She is a lot more shy than I remember her being in the game.

"So Cloud what are you doing with her?"

"I kind of agreed to be her body guard since we ran into some trouble earlier." Hearing this I decided to tease Cloud.

"Oh god, what did he charge you? Something outrages huh?" I finally saw Aeris with a bit of a smile when she giggled.

"Actually I just have to give him one date." She held up her index finger and I gave Cloud a lewd smile.

"AWW Cloud, even when you get blown up you try to charm girls." He looked away and muttered something under his breath.

"So now that we got away, where do we go?" Cloud said, quickly changing the subject.

"Ummm" Aeris looked around before running ahead of us.

"My house is over here. Hurry before he comes."

"Before who comes?" I asked. Knowing full well Reno was around.

"I'll tell you later. Just follow her." We followed Aeris around sector five we past by her slums and a few other places. Again I was amazed at how much bigger the sectors were than in game. The entire time Cloud filled me in on how the Turk had shown up when he met Aeris and attempted to kidnap her only to have Cloud ruin everything.

It took before we eventually got into a huge clearing, both Cloud and myself had our mouths wide garden was full and lush with tons of flowers, each and everyone of them was just about glowing in the sun. It was almost better than how I saw the flowers at the church... the garden here was filled to the brim compared to the church. We went inside and found a very quaint looking house. Small in space, but very pretty looking.

"I'm home mom." Aeris called from the kitchen came out Aeris mother...well adoptive mother. She had on a very nice green dress and a cooking apron on. She looked very concerned for Aeris before she eyed both me and Cloud suspiciously. Aeris quickly explained though.

"This is Cloud and Nathan, my bodyguards." I raised an eyebrow at Cloud since I was suddenly included in this, He shrugged.

"Bodyguard?...You mean you were followed again? Are you alright! Your not hurt are you!" Elmyra looked concerned, frantic even. Aeris waved her off nonchalantly.

"I'm alright, I had Cloud with me." Elmyra looked at both of us before I pointed to my left.

"Thank you Cloud." She politely bowed before she walked off.

"So what are you going to do now?" Aeris turned back to us.

"...Nathan do you remember the way you came from Tifa's bar?" However before I could answer I saw a mischievous look in Aeris eyes.

"Is Tifa a girl?" Aeris asked innocently.

"Yeah" He answered blankly.

"A girl..friend" I knew where this was going.

"What! G-Girlfriend. No way!" Cloud shook his head and hands violently. I busted out laughing the entire time while Aeris giggled.

"You don't have to get THAT upset." She said, still giggling.

"Cloud, Cloud, Cloud. Your older than me and handled that worse than any way I could have answered." I caught my breath and spoke up.

"Older?" Aeris looked up at me. I had completely ignored she was about a foot shorter than me and a few inches below Cloud. In my time here I realized everyone seemed to be...well really short. I guess when I imagine hero's I always picture people bigger than me. Now meeting these guys in person i could say i wasn't entirely impressed. Except Barret of course.

"Ugh don't remind me of that joke." Since Cloud found out I was three years his junior he's avoided the subject of height, I kinda feel bad for him since he was a runt as a kid. Now here he is and a good chunk of the gang is taller than him. Lately I had been bugging him about it just to be funny

"I'm eighteen and Cloud here is twenty one. And since he looks young for his age sometimes people can think up the wrong things." I explained. I at least had small side burns on my face growing in. Cloud actually had a baby face which only made me snicker even more when it came to who looked older.

"Oh okay. Well you need a guide back? I can help you to the gate." She offered.

"That would be much appreciated. I kinda got lost a few times before I found you guys." I lied, rubbing the back of my head. She was supposed to be a part of the gang anyway.

"You gotta be kidding, why would you put yourself in danger again?" Cloud argued.

"I'm used to it." Was the simplest response we could be given.

"Used to it?...well I don't know...getting help from a girl..." Cloud said, coming up with a fake reason to keep her at home.

"A GIRL! What do you mean by that." Aeris was peeved...I guess I should lighten up the situation.

"Yeah, Cloud needs big strong young men to help him, because he is small and wimpy" I said in a gruff voice and puffing out my chest. Aeris was now poorly holding back a fit of giggles while Cloud looked unamused.

"Actually we're short on real man power at the moment, we could defiantly use your help." I deflated at the statement.

"Your a sharp bastard Cloud, I give you that." Aeris calmed herself and turned to the stairs.

"Mom! I'm taking my friends to Sector seven. I'll be back in a while." Elmyra rushed down when Aeris finished.

"But dear..." But before she could start she shook her head and sighed.

"I give up, you never listen once you've made up you mind. But if you must go then why don't you do it tomorrow, its getting late now." Aeris looked a little disappointed she couldn't go on her adventure now.

" Yeah, your right mom." Elmyra let out a breath.

"Aeris, please go make the bed." When she got upstairs the older woman approached us.

"That glow in your eyes...your from SOLDIER, right." Cloud seemed to shrink back at the accusation. "Yeah...or rather I used to be." She looked down before she talked again.

"...I don't know how to say this...but, would you please leave here, tonight without Aeris?" Cloud stood for a sec before he nodded his head. I did as well before we both went upstairs and saw Aeris.

"Cloud you need to get through Sector six to get to Sector seven. Its a little dangerous so you two should get some rest, and sorry its only one bed so one of you will have to sleep on the floor."

"Dibs" I called and walked to the room she came out of. Cloud soon followed after being wished goodnight.

"Don't say a word or I will snap you like a twig." He pointed at me. I thought about joking with him about the goodnight from Aeris but I guess I value my life more.

"What? I'm not that bad dude, I just crack a joke every now and again." I laid down on the rug with Cloud looking at me.

"I used to have to do this, you should take the bed." He suggested. I shook my head"...No we both have been on some rough stuff, but your stronger so we need your strength the most to keep us out of trouble. Plus i have slept like this before too. Its not uncomfortable for me, now go to sleep, we have a person to avoid tomorrow" I chuckled before Cloud took the bed and I the floor.

* * *

><p><strong>ATE<strong>

****"I'm sorry we're late Mr. President. Reno had a run in with the SOLDIER from earlier."

"Aw yes, he was a very cold man." The president responded. Tseng sat at the table with Shinra, along with Rude and a very dejected Reno. After Tseng found out he had gone by himself to capture the Ancient only to have a run in with the SOLDIER helping AVALANCHE he berated the second in command for not thinking through or even contacting to see if he should even attempt to get her. There was a protocol to be followed after all.

"What is it you wanted to speak with us about sir." Tseng asked. The pudgy man took a bite of his steak.

"You had informed me that Don Corneo had found that AVALANCHE is based in Sector seven."

"That is correct. Thoough we don't know the exact location." Tseng responded. However followed by his answer as an awkward stop in conversation. The only sound was the president eating.

"I want you to take down the plate in Sector seven." He finally said. The only noticeable reaction was Reno. Tseng had kept his face impassive.

"Wait, why would you go that far?" Reno asked.

"Doesn't it seem a little extreme?" Rude agreed with his partner, nodding his head.

"We aren't even sure the entire team will even be in sector seven. They might even move their base since we found out. There are many variables..." Tseng noted before a clang of silverware got everyone's attention.A very irate Shinra looking back at them.

"We have already lost two reactors to those heathens, I will not risk anymore."

"But an entire plate sir?" Rude responded. President Shinra wiped his mouth before answering

"If we blow up the upper plate than this way than we can blame it on AVALANCHE themselves considering their track record. Making it so they have absolutely no place to hide."

"Will it not cost us more. The amount its going to take to start the reactors up with skeleton crews already exceeds well over a million gil. An entire plate would not be cost effective." Tseng said.

"Then when will you all find them so we can stop this? The longer you take the more they have to plan against us. Without drastic measures we will keep losing reactors. I want this problem dealt with, now." The Turks were visually stiffened at the order. They were used to this kind of work, eliminating Shinra's political enemy's, but to such a scale within its own territory had only happened once in Sector six, and those events were classified even to Tseng.

"When do you want us to take up the operation?" Tseng asked, keeping himself in a business manor.

"Tomorrow morning, I would rather that these rats be dealt with swiftly and efficiently, as you always do Tseng. This meeting is adjourned, go prepare yourselves."

Tseng as well as Reno and Rude got up and thanked the president for his time. While in the hallways Tseng picked up on his subordinates conversation to pass the time.

"This is Banero all over again." Reno remarked.

"That is why we are the ones who have to do this, anyone else would get attached or emotional." Tseng added.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. If you need me I'll be in Wall Market." Rude gave him a look.

"Again? This is your fourth visit."

"Is there any particular reason you keep going there Reno?" Tseng stopped in the middle of the hallway. Reno had been acting odd as of late. He would constantly go through sector six and come back with a bitter sweet attitude and Tseng had seen him pour through the citizen database at one point.

"Sir, how many people know about what the Turks really do? Such as citizens?" The question caught Tseng off guard. Reno never really investigated such matters He would always slack off until he was told to do a mission that was either watching the Ancient or investigating leads on AVALANCHE, then complete it, then slack off again. It was a simple pattern that fit with the Turks schedules.

"Few, we always give the same pitch of simply recruiting future SOLDIER's . But if you believe if someone knows to much about the organization..."

"No..no. Just I saw someone odd... I'm just overreacting." Reno walked ahead leaving behind two puzzled Turks.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N Hello once again audience, where we last left off I found everyone seems to like the height joke in here. In all seriousness if you look it up everyone is freakin chibi size and stuff. Compared to my 6'2 people are like lopsided. I mean I looked it up and I am an inch taller then seph, equal to vince, and an inch shorter than barret...

what the hell?

Oh and on a final note one of my reviewers remarked on the odd attitudes of Aeris and Reno, well they actually start making a little sense in this chappa and the next.

* * *

><p>"Nathan...Nathan." My eyes slowly opened due to the hand shaking my shoulder.<p>

"Its time for us to go." He pulled me up.

He made me tiptoe along the side of the stairs to avoid making noise. Even though Aeris was going to beat us to the exit anyway. How she pulls that off will always be mystery to me...maybe she's a secret ninja...I mean Yuffie didn't look like much and in the game she used a freaking hundred pound shuriken . I'll have to ask her about that..she doesn't have Mako so how in the hell does she hold that thing?

"Alright, lets get going." Cloud and me just arrived out the front door.

"Just wait dude." I ran to the flower field and searched around a few areas before I found the purple materia on the ground. When I picked it up I felt my muscles tighten. I smiled at the cover materia. "I noticed this out the corner of my eye."

Cloud nodded. "Impressive, but we have to get to sector seven as soon as possible. I pocketed the orb and jogged with Cloud out of the slums area.

"Hey Cloud, we should get some supplies."

"Fine, meet back here quick though." Cloud went off in some direction, I tried to find the Item shop. I was going in circles until I bumped into a kid.

"Shit I'm sorry, you okay?"  
>"Yeah yeah, I'm fine mister." He was short...brown hair and regular clothes.<p>

"You sure? I can see if you have any scratches and..."  
>"I said I was fine...geez later." He ran off into the crowd, meh guess he's okay. I almost walked off before I looked at the ground and saw what looked like a stub and a small vial, I picked it up to see it had a picture of a turtle with an island on its back...wait..<p>

_Oh its the Turtles Paradise thing!_

I completely forgot about that side quest. I looked and saw that the vial was a mega-elixer as well. Now I remember! Its the kid from that room where if you left his money alone you could get this and the flier. Lucky me, I pocketed bot items right next to my...wait a minute...I searched through my pockets and realized something.

That kid pick-pocketed me! All my gill is gone...oohhhhh you sneaky little bastard when I get my hands on you...

"Nathan, we need to go." Cloud walked up with a small travel back pack, probably filled with healing items.

"...Fine..." I'll get you next time you little bastard.

We ran through the slums until we eventually we got to the exit only to run into a smiling red dressed girl.

"You two sure are up bright and early."

Cloud had a very disappointed look. "How could I ask you to go along when I knew it would be dangerous?"  
>"You done?"<br>"Actually I wanted to ask something." She looked at me "Are you a wizard?" Fanning surprise at her arrival.

She laughed and told us we had to pass thru sector six to get to Tifa's and ran off leaving a very stunned Cloud.

"Quiet the handful that woman." I tapped his shoulder. "You have a lot to deal with." I laughed and ran while Cloud was sputtering something of a reply.

"Cloud!" I sobered up when I heard the plea. The both of us ran to see Aeris surrounded by several giant bugs.

_Whole eaters._

"Leave them to me." He pulled out his buster sword.

"Now how said you are going to look like the only tough guy here?" I placed my hand on fusion and got a running start at one of the bugs before I got a good horizontal slash and killed the oversized worm. I then took the chance to launch a fireball to keep another at bay. Cloud went for two with a simple smash with his sword. Needless to say having Mako enhancements as well as that heavy a sword the eaters were obliterated. Thank god we have him, apparently the maximum an enemy can appear in a group was expanded since my appearance.

"AHHH!" Both me and Cloud looked to see the remaining three Whole eaters crowding a now bleeding Aeris.

"Aeris catch!" I tossed my restore materia to her she caught it and took a good jab at one crawler making it shrink back, but before she could cast one bug decided to try to take a bite out of her while she was open.

_Fuck my swords not at a good angle!_

I pulled out The cover materia and took a sprint to Aeris. I held out my body in open and focused on the orb. Instantly I felt my whole body tighten up and dull out its senses. He insect had jumped and latched onto my arm. It tried to tear it but looking I could see my muscle hold up against the sharp teeth.

"FUCK that still hurts." I took fusion and stabbed the eater through the head to make it let go. Cloud came up and slashed the last two before he came up to the both of us.

"You two okay." Only a hint of concern in his voice.

"Just a bite."  
>"...here let me help." She covered the bloody chunk of my arm and called out cure. I felt a small heat radiate onto my arm that dulled the pain till nothing was left. "Thanks Aeris."I gave her a thumbs up.<p>

"Nathan..." She started. "Why did you do that? I would have expected Cloud to do that but...I hardly even know you." She was acting like when she first saw me again. God why is she like this? Honestly she should be totally cool around a kid like me.

"Hey, its the right thing to do. If I didn't you would have ended up worse than that slash you had before." I pulled Fusion out of the eater and found I had pulled something out along with it.

"What the hell." I dug through the eater with the tip of Fusion to see that inside of the thing was gil.

….Okay how does this shit work?

"Cloud, why is there gil inside of this bug." He came and looked when he bent down and grabbed the handful of coins and a few bills.

"Monsters really don't care how they eat people, often when you kill a creature its digestive track will have the gil from its old victims since it can't be properly digested."

….wait...

so...

...THAT IS HOW YOU GOT GIL FROM MONSTERS? EWEWUWGUHHUGGUG!

"Okay that's it for today we are going to sector seven now." I walked at a hurried pace. I will not be around to learn the anatomy of a bug to properly pick money from. After that episode it was only a few minutes till we got to the sector seven gate.

"There's the gate to sector seven." Aeris was leading the group again. "Thanks. I guess this is good bye. You gunna be alright going home?"  
>"Oh no, what ever will I do? Is that what you want me to say." Cloud sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.<br>"I guess we can take you to sector seven with us."  
>"I could do that, but won't I be in your way?"<br>"What do you mean in the way." Me and Cloud both answered. Honestly she was a huge help. I don't do well with cure as much as I do fire. I've always been an offensive kind of guy.

"Nothing." She shook her head. " Can we take a break?" Cloud nodded his head and Aeris went over to the playgrounds giant cat slide thing and sat on the top.

"Cloud over here!" He shrugged and got on top as well. I opted to stand on the swing and go back and forth. We chilled for a bit before she broke the silence.

"What rank were you?"  
>"Rank?"<br>"You know...in SOLDIER."  
>"Oh..I was.." Cloud had a small flash in his eyes before he answered. "First class."<br>"The same as him."  
>"Same as who."<br>"My first boyfriend." I had a picture of Zack flash thru my head. I tuned out the rest of their conversation thinking about how he had died at the end of Crisis Core. It was sad...and I wished I could have prevented it, but even at the level I am at now I would have been killed and not accomplish anything... hell I'm surprised I've done as much as I have now I mean I have my own limit break! That's freaking boss! Now everyone has like eight of them though...so what hell else can I do... Maybe I can like slash and It doesn't cut a person until later...actually that would suck nevermind. Maybe it involves magic, OH I could totally do with lazers no no if I could Hadoken people...no how the hell do I make that kind of energy...maybe lightning materia...damn how do I use magic to make me awesome-er?

"Huh, hey back there..." Clouds words snapped me out of my thoughts to see the Chocobo cart pulling a scantly clad woman in the back. Damn Tifa barely looks like her self...and that dress shows a little too much of her cleavage, hell more so than anything else she could wear.

"Tifa?"  
>"That girl in the cart was Tifa? Where was she going? She looked a little odd." after that comment Aeris had a determined look on her face before she hopped off the slide and ran after the cart.<p>

"Wait! I'll go with Nathan! You go home." He looked down when she didn't even listen to him.

"You knew that was coming."  
>"I probably did." I jumped off the swing set and went to the front gate."Where are you going?"<br>"Well I have to at least tell the rest of AVALANCHE your not a splatter on the side walk, plus you and Aeris can investigate whats up with Tifa." He thought for a minute before nodding his head.

"That makes sense, be careful Nathan."  
>"You too Cloud." The gate opened up for me to pass through. I gave one last wave to Cloud before he ran off and the gate closed up. I jogged to Seventh Heaven with a frown on my own determined mindset.<p>

_Time to make some significant changes._

When I got to the Bar I found Barret as well as the trio standing around. "Nathan? What happened?"  
>"Long story short I found Cloud and he went to see why Tifa was in a sky blue skin tight dress." No one seemed to laugh at my attempt to lighten up the situation. "Nathan you need to hear this." Jessie sounded extremely worried.<br>"Whats wrong?" Barret stood up.  
>"AVALANCHE was found out, now the whole plate is going to come down." I took up a shocked expression and told them to tell me the whole story. They explained how they found a leak in the slums and how the Turks were planning on getting rid of the plate to eliminate the entire sector to get rid of them.<p>

"That's fucking insane."  
>"Its the truth Nathan, we were preparing to get to the tower to defend it, It has quite a few guards, but we need to make sure it doesn't fall." Biggs said.<br>"So lets quit yappin and start doin." Barret ended the discussion and everyone ran towards the tower.

"Stay here, I'll draw their attention by getting to the top. Then you guys come in and take up the place by sections." Everyone nodded but me, I was to caught up in thinking how to best approach the situation.

"Nathan you ok?" I looked at Wedge and tried to put on a grin.  
>"Just can't wait to kick some Shinra ass." In time Barret had blasted the gates and started up the tower. In less than twenty minutes the whole place had gone to hell. Me and the trio we at the bottom keeping civilians from getting close or extra guards trying to come up from the bottom.<p>

"We have to help Barret, he's been up there too long." Biggs said.  
>"Yeah we need to go up." Jessie added.<br>"Guys no." They turned to see me blocking the front gate.

"Nathan what the hell!" Biggs yelled.  
>"Barret could be in trouble." Wedge said.<br>"I know guys, that's why I'm going up...alone." Everyone went wide eyed.  
>"Nathan that's suicide?" Jessie and Wedge said at the same time.<br>"Their right Nathan, the heli-troopers have started mobilizing. Going by yourself is asking to die."  
>"I know its not a good idea but its the right thing to do!" I yelled back.<br>"And what are we going to do while you go kill yourself." Biggs took a step forward. I knew I was insane. But this was all I could come up with in less than thirty minutes. Seriously I need to prevent something now.

"You will not go inside, the most likely situation a lot of people will die!."  
>"WHAT?" they all screamed.<br>"Guys, I know AVALANCHE is a group effort, but now this just isn't a reactor where a person can get caught in an explosion. If we fail, not only will we lose our lives but thousands of others as well." I threw Fusion into the ground to make a point. Incidentally nobody wanted to argue now.

"What I am asking you guys to do is let me go up by myself while you guys evacuate as many of the citizens as possible. You guys know about the plate but they don't, and I barley know the area. At least if we do it this way, and not succeed we save some lives." Everyone was in thought.

Surprisingly it was Wedge who broke the silence. "You better come back in one piece Nathan."  
>"You may not be the leader, but you convinced me." Biggs stepped forward.<br>"Do your best" Jessie cheered. I smiled and nodded my head. I picked up fusion and looked up the huge tower I gave one last thumbs up to the crew before starting up the steps of the tower.

_I'm going to fucking die aren't I?_

Another thing I didn't think thru was how tall the tower was. I ran for a good five minutes before having to catch my breath. Fuck I hate running. Maybe I'm close I was going pretty fast. I looked up and over the edge. I was barely up a quarter.

"Fuck this is bigger than I thought."

I took a few more breaths before I started jogging again. A few minutes and breaths later I heard the tell tale warning of propellers underneath me. Sure enough I look over the side and see three Aero Combatants slowly ascending the side of the stairs, easily cutting my running time by a fourth.

"You think its gunna be that easy?" I yell and readied up my fire materia. I aimed and sent a few fireballs at the group before they noticed me, all my targets hit and their hand copter things started sputtering and they landed like three floors below me...or stairs I don't know what this is considered. I started running again. I only ran for another five minutes before I heard more wrings. I look over the edge to see another combatant suddenly appear in front of me and try to chop my face off with his free arm.

"Fucking Shinra and their sweet ass toys." The guy just kept trying to slash me, luckily his slashing made him swing back and forth so I could avoid his slashes with effort. I pulled out Fusion and parried one of his strikes and took a slash of my own only to be met with air. The guy dodged by ascending and quickly descended onto the strains and readied his fighting blades. Right then the group I knocked down earlier came up the steps ready to tear into my ass.

"Stay down!" They all tried to come at me, Luckily the cramped space made it so only two could try to strike me. One came at me horizontally while another vertical, I angled my blade to make the latter move into the formers way, causing them to stumble and fall on the steps. Their allies trampled right over their bodies and tried to hit me as well.

No respect among any of these guys huh? I didn't fair so well this time, one got a good gash across my stomach and the other nabbed my face with a blunt edge. I was disoriented so I started slashing in random directions till I got my barrings, it seemed to work because they backed off, afraid to get any long standing injury's. I took my chance and focused on my materia, I didn't need a ball though I needed something for the small space. I focused more making the red flame in my hand become even more irritated. Eventually the flame just exploded in my hand and sent the two guards back, screaming from the burn wounds they had. I had my glove on but I still felt scorches reach up to my biceps. Luckily it didn't have to much damage, I guess my idea will come in handy.

"Damn...I am not going to use that move again." I looked and saw all the soldiers were unconscious, I pocketed some gil and was about to run up again when one of them caught my eye. He hadn't gone yet. He had suffered the brunt of the flame damage, I could see the scars on his mouth since the helmet he had on. His armor was pitch black and he was breathing heavily. What I noticed though was his propeller was working and I was happy to snatch it away from the man. It turns out the design for the hand propeller ran on Mako. Looking at it I saw it had a canister of the stuff on the inside, with a single hand control mechanism. It had a handle and a button I guessed powered it up when pushed and powered down when let go.

"You won't mind if I take this do you?" I said to the now... hopefully unconscious fighter. "I'll try to return it."

I held it with my good non slightly cooked arm right arm and pressed the button. Sure enough it started powering up and lifting me off the ground. I tilted my wrist to the side and flew off the stairs. I held it straight and started to go up faster than I could have made it. In only a matter of minutes I was near the top. Just getting over I saw Barret having trouble on his own with the helicopter.

"Barret!" He looked over.  
>"Nathan. Bout time you got here." He kept firing at the copter.<br>"Where are the others?"  
>"Evacuating the slums." I touched down and tossed the mechanism to the side, I didn't need it anymore.<p>

"What? I said to keep the tower guarded! No wonder I've had to shoot so many damn fly boys."  
>"Listen don't blame them, it was me who convinced them." His irritated stare softened a little.<br>"...I'll let it slide, but when we get out of here I'm kicking your ass for not following orders."  
>"I can deal." For a few minutes we held our positions with Barret trying miserably to shoot the helicopter out. I felt the burns catch up to me and I fell to a knee.<p>

"You ok?"  
>"I'm fine, I just wish I kept my restore materia." Cursing in my head for leaving it with Aeris. "Here."<p>

Barret reached into his pocket and tossed his own restore materia. "How..?"  
>"When we went to blow the sector five reactor Cloud said we should get some extra materia. He told me to keep it."<p>

I smiled knowing that was the exact strategy I used when I played the game. I used a few cure spells and I felt all better, if not a little dizzy. I looked and saw Barret getting madder at the helicopter.

"Just give up already! You ain't gunna hit it."  
>"Fuckers just lucky." He murmured.<br>"Need help?" Me and Barret looked and saw Both Cloud and Tifa coming to us.  
>"Cloud, Tifa you came! Be careful Their attacking from the helicopter."<br>"We better equip ourselves then." Cloud gave Tifa my original restore materia and much to Barret's dismay to sucking on materia he was given ice. I kept my fire while Cloud kept his lightning.

"Here they come!" Tifa pointed at the approaching helicopter. Barret aimed and once again missed every shot. The copter flew right past us causing a huge wind to hit us with everyone on the team covering their faces. I kept my eyes open to see a certain red haired Turk jump down and run to the controls. Everyone ran over and stared at his held up hand.

"Your too late, once I push this button..." His hand slowed down in my vision when I ran right up to him. I felt a surge of adrenaline when I sprinted towards him "Not this time Douchebag!"

I tackled his ass to the side. He and I both rolled to the sides afterwords and both sprang to our feet. Me being near Tifa and him close to the ledge.

"Your gunna pay for that you bas..!" He got a good look at my face and I knew he instantly recognized me. We both stood for a few seconds with the rest of the group confused at what was happening.

"Well well well look who it is yo, it has been a while now hasn't it Nathan." He corrected his posture and got into his attack position.

"Only a few days, but then again that would seem like forever to someone like you Reno." I noted the rest of the group was looking at both of us with surprise and confusion. "I hope your not mad I didn't call, I've been busy lately." He chuckled.

"You know this guy?" Barret yelled. Both Cloud and Tifa getting into fighting stances.

"I met him in Wall Market when I first got here, I bought him breakfast, but I didn't think I would have to meet him again under these circumstances." I explained.

"What a load." He yelled getting everyone's attention. "Is this what you meant by employment? Being a terrorist, I bet you planned to meet me again yo." Reno...arrogant as always...its one of you better features.

"And where do you get that?" All I did was talk with him for a few minutes over food and I didn't give any obvious information.

"How you said I was part of the Turks, We only give out who we are to possible recruits, we aren't normally known to the public... only those with connections to Shinra know who we really are. And then you show up here with these terrorists? You must have links somewhere. I have to say, I am impressed, your a good actor." He went off. Well he's not wrong in a sense...but he is Reno so I shouldn't give him any praise.

"You don't know me, quit over-analyzing, now leave and you may only have a few bruises. Fight and I can guarantee it will be worse!" I yelled. I wasn't going to let him kill thousands of people now. He pulled out his stun rod from his jacket and extended it.

"Tell me Nathan, can you even kill a person?" I froze at the question. Thinking back I hadn't killed anyone since I came here, sure there were the thugs and Aero soldiers but they all were severely wounded...not killed. I was a decent human being and I felt fighting people in self defense is necessary...but taking another persons life didn't sit well with me

"I'm willing to bet you haven't killed a single person in your life. You don't want to take life, its so precious. Now tell me how are you, someone completely inexperienced, going to kill someone like me, who has a lot under his belt." He pointed his rod and I looked down. He was right. I didn't want to stain my own hands so how was I going to beat him without having an actual intent to kill. I was still to weak to help, sure I could cast some magic and wave around a special sword. But what would I do when it came to taking another life? There were Shinra soldiers as enemy's, I can't just keep knocking them out or injuring them.

_Maybe I don't have what it takes_

"Nathan, its okay." I looked and saw Tifa put a hand on my shoulder. "Sometimes you have to do bad things for the better."

"Shes right." Cloud came up with his buster sword in hand. " As long as you do something for good, it will get better in the end." Barret appear and just huffed in agreement. Their right. If its for the better...then I can bottle it up. I felt myself tear up a little and I wiped them away. I got into my fighting position and looked at Reno's now agitated form.

"I may not have taken a life, I may only be eighteen, but I will do whats right, and stopping you from pressing that button is whats right". His eyes seemed to get confused in the middle of my sentence...probably my age thing again.

"I will make sure you don't succeed." I felt power surge through me and I started the first attack.

"Air-slash!" I drew Fusion and threw shock-waves in Reno's direction. He jumped to the side just in time to avoid the cut that now severed a part of the platform.

"No one gets in the way of Reno of the Turks!" He went for Tifa, she tried to block the rod with her arm but the rod charged and sent a painful jolt through her system. She jumped back in defense.

"Its electric! Be careful." Barret started shooting with Reno somehow expertly dodging the bullets. I cursed inwardly. He wasn't a Turk for no reason. He then conjured some odd magic when He threw it at Barret. He was encased in the pyramid spell and was now trapped. He tried to shoot the wall down only to have the bullets bounce of harmlessly.

"Try and break it if you can." Reno smirked. I had a smile of my own. "Don't mind if I do!"

I slashed at the pyramid to see it shatter into nothing leaving a very relieved Barret. "Nice try Reno, but your not as good as you think you are." One thing I learned from games, anime, and cartoons. Insult the enemy and they get weaker...or something I forget how it works out but make an enemy angry and he starts slopping came up and tried to slash him only to be knocked back by Reno's weapon. When he tried to get his own hit he was blocked off by Tifa getting a good right hook to his face. I came up from behind and tried to trip him, but he spun around just in time.

"I'll admit your smart, but how bout this!" He charged me and tried to nab me with the stun rod. I held out Fusion in a defensive position and blocked the weapon. Both of us having the same idea we kicked each other in the guts and stumbled back. Fuck he's powerful! Tifa tries to get in a few punches but he somehow is able to dodge and block in all the right places. She needs an opening, think...think...I got it!

"Cloud, go for it!" Cloud went to slash the Turk but he swerved out of the way at the last second, just getting a nick on his shoulder. "Damn it." He muttered, He sent out another pyramid attack and trapped Cloud inside. Well shit there went my plan.

"Tifa, get him out. Barret your with me, start casting." He smiled and aimed his gun. Reno tried to get in close but I sent a fire ball to halt his progress. Barret took a little longer than normal to cast an ice spell but the shards flew and cut Reno up a good deal. He was getting angrier. suddenly he had a burst of speed and struck with is stun rod, me being unprepared lost Fusion and was knocked back with a jolt of electricity while Barret took a good hit and was knocked off to the side.

"Nice try yo, but you can't beat one of the best." He cast another pyramid and trapped an unsuspecting Tifa , Cloud was now trying to free her and Barret was still in pain.

"Looks like your on your own, to bad yo." he was chuckling a little until his face contorted into confusion.

He saw the smile I had on my face. "You only gave me reason to try one of my new tricks." He raised an eyebrow and I summoned a small lighter sized flame above my index finger.

_Concentrate on the area...don't lose the spot on your hand..._

"You already showed your magic, now let me pass and I might spar your life till the plate falls." He was getting ready to run.

"Just try me." I stated. The flame was now about the size of a soft ball.

"To bad. You seemed like a cool dude yo." He went for another full sprint at me. I encased the flame proof glove with fire and got into a ready position, by the time Reno realized what I did it was to late.

"Take this!" I put all my weight into my right fist and threw it at Reno. He tried to hit me in the stomach but I made contact first.

"FALCONNNNN PUUUUNCH!"

I hit my mark. Reno was thrown back with a burnt looking shoulder over the other side of the platform with me between him and the controls. I looked at my hand and felt some pain. The fire spell went through the padding and got to the regular glove. I had minor burns, nothing I couldn't cure later. But it sucks I can't falcon punch someone without hurting myself, I tossed of the glove. There will be time for better ideas.

"Now you fail your mission." I stood over him and gave him a glare.  
>"Not likely, its time for me to go." I failed to notice he kept hold of his stun rod through my punch. He stood and at the same time charged at got a good swing on my head. The pain was amplified being so close to my brain it nearly knocked me out. I fell to my knees clutching my temple and saw him stumble to the controls enter some kind of code.<p>

"A little late but mission accomplished." He ran and jumped of the side of the railing. Tifa went up to the controls while Barret came over and helped me up. Damn it!

"Cloud! I don't know how to stop this. You try it." He went and surveyed it but shook his head.  
>"Its not a normal time bomb."<p>

We heard more wring and looked up to see the helicopter, with Tseng and Aeris on board. "That's right, you'll have a hard time disarming that one. It'll blow the second some stupid jerk touches it."  
>"Please stop it!" Tifa pleaded.<p>

He ignored her. "Only a Shinra executive can set up or disarm the emergency plate release system."  
>"Shut yer hole!" Barret raised his gun but Tseng held up his hand.<p>

"I wouldn't try that... you just might make me injure our special guest." Barret lowered his gun just now noticing the brown haired girl on her knees.

"Aeris!" Tseng was intrigued. "So you know each other? How nice you get to see each other one last time. You should thank me."

Cloud was angry now "What are you going to do with Aeris!" The blue suited man shrugged.

"I haven't decided. Our orders were to find and capture the last remaining Ancient...Its taken us a long time, but now I can finally report this to the president."  
>"Tifa don't worry! Their alright!" Aeris yelled above the copters loud blades. Only to get slapped by Tseng.<p>

"Aeris!"  
>"Hurry and get out!"<br>"Well it should be starting right now. Think you can escape in time?" He had a sad look in his eye when he said that. They started to fly away at the same time the plate started to explode. The entire tower was shaking. Everyone in the group was panicking.

"Once the plate comes down it will be to late, we got to hurry!" Barret yelled looking over the railing. I looked and saw the crane that they used in the game.

"Guys the crane!" Everyone looked and all of us crowded around it. Tifa got in front of Barret and Cloud jumped up on his right shoulder, I opted for the left.

"Here we go! Hold on tight." We swung and I felt my stomach drop but I held on tight. We flew past as the entire plate came down. I could hear explosions happening all around because of the impact of rubble. We got past the front gate and felt the lurch from the steel rope that threw us all off. Everyone fell painfully into the playground. Eventually everything became quiet.

I just wanted to stay down ...I couldn't save sector seven... I just wasn't strong enough...I finally opened my eyes and looked with the rest of the group at the now destroyed gate. I looked over and saw Barret the most distraught of us all.

"Marlene! Marlene!" He ran up and started to pound on the metal debris.

"MARLEEEEEEEEENE!" He kept running around the gate, trying to find a way in.

"Biggs! Wedge! Jessie!" He was hitting hard enough his fist started to bleed.

"Dammit...DAMMIT...dammit all to hell!" The rest of us were just watching...not saying a word.

"What the hells it all for! ARRRRGH!" He started shooting off bullets at the rubble.

"Barret I think Marlene's safe." Tifa finally spoke. Barret looked back. "What?"

"I told Aeris to look after her and before she was taken, she told me that "they" was safe. I think she meant Marlene and the others." Still hope...maybe the trio weren't caught.

"Damn, Marlene! I've got to find her!"

Out the corner of my eye I saw Cloud walk off. I decided I should follow since Tifa was trying to keep Barret calm. I was already relieved, the fact Aeris dialog changed one word meant that I at least did something right. I was still sad I couldn't save the entire sector, but not everything can be changed...I guess there is some stuff set in stone.

"Your thinking about what they called her huh?" Cloud looked back to me.

"We need to find out more...maybe if we know what an Ancient is we can see what they wanted with her." I nodded.  
>"So what do we do then?"<p>

"We should see her mother...maybe she could shed some light on this."  
>"Cloud! Nathan!" Tifa yelled with Barret right behind her. "Don't go off by yourselves...now what are we going to do?"<p>

"We're going to Aeris house, maybe we can learn more from her mother."

"Were going to help Aeris right?" Tifa asked.

"Yes...but there is something I have to know..." Cloud seemed to space out for a few seconds worrying Tifa a bit. Poor guy, I'd really like to help him but I can't do much until he falls into the life stream...god that's a long ways away.

"Cloud you okay?"

"Yeah..come on lets go." We started our trudge to Aeris house. We tried to avoid any monsters since we were a little ruffed up from the last situation. The restore materia I had though helped a lot

"By the way, Nathan what technique was that. I've never seen it before." Tifa piped up

"Oh, it was an Idea I came up with from a show I saw once before, a guy lit his fist on fire and he would do some serious damage when he punched someone."

"How could you do that...it doesn't seem possible."  
>"I substituted the flames with a fire materias flames."<p>

"How did your arm survive?" Tifa yelled with Barret and Cloud looking back.

"I went to the weapons shop before hand and got the inside of some fighting gloves insulated with fire retardant material...not good against a fire spell though." I noted to get something better than a cheap fire blanket.

"Where did you get the material?" Cloud asked.

"I kinda sorta took the fire blanket from Tifa's bar." I heard her groan at that. "At least you didn't have to use it." I mumbled.

"Next time you try something like that let me know." I told me with a very dirty look in her eye.

"We're here." We were in-front of Aeris house, everyone just stood around reluctant to relay the news to her mother, I was getting impatient and decided to just walked in. And there she was standing like she was waiting for us.

"Nathan...and Cloud wasn't it?" She turned. "Its about Aeris isn't it?"

"Sorry...the Shinra have her." Cloud stepped forward.

"I know, they took her from here" Everyone's eyes besides mine widened.

"What were they doing here." I said trying to sound surprised.

"Its what Aeris wanted..." She said Cloud walked up to her with a pleading look.

"Why is Shinra after Aeris?"

"...Aeris is an ancient...the sole survivor." Everyone seemed confused.

"What did you say? But I thought you were her mother?" I nodded. "Barret's right, that doesn't add up."

She seemed even more depressed. "...Not her real mother. Oh it must have been fifteen years ago...During the war my husband was sent to the front, some far away place called Wutai." She started telling us her story on how she waited for her husband everyday at the train station after hearing he had leave. Then one day she came upon Aeris crying at her dieing mother, and how her last words were to take Aeris to a safe place. She talked about how she escaped some laboratory, which would obviously be Shinra, and how Aeris said that her mother returned to the planet.

"Returned to the planet?" Barret questioned.

"I didn't know what she meant. I asked if she meant a star in the sky, but she said it was this planet...She was a mysterious child in many ways.

"Nathan didn't you say you understood how the life stream works?" I was snapped out of my thoughts hearing the original dialogue. "What about it?"

"Do you know what Aeris was talking about?" I need to stop making stuff up on the spot. I'm gunna corner myself one day.

"Its a theory that my father had picked up in Cosmo Canyon. The life stream is the life source of the entire planet. Plants, animals, even humans have energy of the planet inside of them. And when they die that energy is returned to the planet so it can be put into a new being...or I believe that's how the cycle works."

Elmyra had a thoughtful look on her face while starring at me. She then continued on how Aeris somehow knew her husband had died before the news was even sent to her, and how the Turks had found her and have been trying to kidnap her since.

"Its amazing how she avoided Shinra all these years..." Well with having the affection of the leader of the Turks I guess it gave her some leeway when he didn't want to see her experimented on.

"The Shinra needed her. So I guess they wouldn't harm her."  
>"But why now..." Tifa mumbled to herself.<br>"She had brought a little girl and a few injured people here. On the way Tseng found them. She probably couldn't get away fast enough. She decided to go to Shinra in exchange for their safety."

"Must be Marlene...but who are the others?" I brightened up knowing full well who these people are. "Its Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie...thank god I did something right." Tifa and Cloud looked at me when Barret interrupted.

"Marlene! Aeris was caught because of her and my team!" He walked up front. "I'm sorry, Marlene's my daughter. I'm...really...sorry."

Elmyra looked taken back. "You're her father! How in the world could you ever leave a child alone like that!" Barret sank real low being berated by the woman. He held up his hand when he had enough of the guilt trip.

"...Please don't start with that, I think about it all the time, what would happen to Marlene...if I." He trailed off, obviously sad at the fact that even though he was doing good, it meant losing time with his girl.

"But you gotta understand somethin...I don't have an answer. I wanna be with Marlene...but I want to fight...cuz if I don't...the planets gunna die." He held out his fist with determination in his eyes.

"So I'm gunna keep fighting...but I am worried about Marlene I just want to be with her...always." He shook his head.

"See I'm going in circles now." Elmyra nodded.  
>"I think I understand what your saying...She's upstairs sleeping. Why don't you go see her." Barret walked up the stairs. Cloud soon followed him after he talked with Tifa for a second.<p>

"Tifa why don't you go see everyone, I'll be right up...I need a breath." Tifa looked and nodded. She went up and I rested at the diner table. I needed a break and everyone getting mushy upstairs provided the perfect opportunity. The older woman sat across from me and gave me an odd glance.

"Is their something on my face?" I remembered I survived yet another explosion and tried to wipe of what was on me with my T-shirt...man I should get a clean pair of clothes I've been in this for a while.

"No, just seeing how Aeris was a little cautious around you." Wait what.

"What do you mean?"  
>"Did you not notice how she would act a little shy around you even after you helped her, and how social she had been as a child?" Well yeah but that could have been a misinterpretation of her character in the game to now...but then again it made sense.<p>

"She told me about you a few days ago, the man who gave off an odd aura."  
>"Aura?" What the hell is that supposed to mean?<br>"She had said she met a young looking man who gave off an aura that said he was different from everyone else. She was nervous because she said she couldn't tell if it was bad or good."

But that doesn't make any sense, I don't have Jenova cells inside me so I don't give off that Calamity feel...and Fusion doesn't give off anything since in Musashi it was just a neutral sword. I'm just like everyone else...what could have been so special about my aura?

…...

It dawned on me when that thought passed. I wasn't like anyone else. I had been put here for some reason and had started interfering with the story. I was an anomaly...an inconsistency with something that had been set in stone. Maybe the voices were the planet trying to see what I was. It makes sense it would be cautious of another other worldly being appearing at random in its midst.

"I just experienced a lot in my short time here...I don't feel like myself all that much anymore." God ain't that the truth.

She nodded her head. "She could always tell how people felt...It was one of her gifts." I got up.

"I'll go and find your daughter, I'll bring her back to you. That I can promise...but it may take a long time so don't wait up for me." I patted her shoulder and she smiled with what seemed like a tear in her eye. She mouthed a thank you when Everyone came down the stair way.

"Its good to see I wasn't stupid when I sent you guys to help the people." I smiled at the now living trio.  
>"We got out when we met that Aeris girl try to help Marlene." Biggs explained.<br>"We got out in time to get to sector five, but we ran into that Turk...we wanted to help but he threatened that in the end Marlene would be harmed." Jessie stepped up. I waved her off.

"You guys did what was in your power...I'm just really glad that your all alive and well."  
>"Aww Nathan, thanks." Wedge rubbed the back of his head and I looked toward the rest of the gang.<p>

"We also got a lot of people out. It was a crazy idea, but a good one." better than what happened in the game at least.

"So we going to save Aeris or what." Everyone nodded.  
>"I told the gang to lay low while we get her, we need a small group to get her in the Shinra building." Cloud explained. Good, at least the rest won't die while we go save the planet.<p>

"There is one bit of business we have to cover though." Everyone looked at Barret. He walked over and before I could ask he punched me straight in the gut with his gun arm.

"BLAAHH..." I doubled over and fell on my knees for the second time that day. "What the fuck man...oh god...ohhhhhh." That was total shit dude!

"I told you I would get you for disobeying orders." I looked up at the smiling guy. He offered me a hand which I refused and stumbled up on my own.

"I'll get you next time Barret...cough...just you wait." Everyone else thought it was hilarious apparently and were laughing their asses off. Save Elmyra...at least shes mature. Barret turned back and bowed a little at her.

"I'm sorry, but could you take care of Marlene a little longer?" She smiled.  
>"Yes, I don't mind."<br>"This place is dangerous now, Biggs, take her to some decent hiding spots" He nodded.  
>"You got it boss."<br>"Alright...but promise you'll come back to her. Don't get yourself killed."

He nodded and stared at Cloud, Tifa, and myself. We all had a silent agreement. We were going into the belly of the beast now... I smiled...aw what the hell, one cheesy line.

"Time to nut up or shut up guys."

* * *

><p><strong>ATE The captive.<strong>

"GOD DAMN IT. Yo I said to be gentle!" Reno was struggling at his medic.

" I told you it would sting, we need to disinfect it and make sure it doesn't cause anymore damage that it already has." Tseng nearly scolded at his subordinate. Aeris didn't care, he deserved what he got.

"I am still surprised that man was able to get this good a hit on you, fire materia at that low a level and do this kind of damage."

"He's only eighteen you know." Aeris mentioned. She thought it would cripple the Turk a little more, it would bring her a little happiness.

"You mean he was serious when he said was eighteen? I was nearly beat by a damn kid yo." Reno grunted as his bandages were now properly in place.

"I must admit, I now understand why you were concerned about this Nathan." Tseng looked over at Aeris.

"I hope your not to angry at my display." Aeris spat in his direction.

"What you did was unforgivable." She couldn't believe they could stoop so low, to kill thousands to get rid of a few and just take her. Tseng looked away while Reno continued complaining about his bandages on the helicopter. It only took a few minutes before the had reached the landing pad on the roof.

"We're here" He grabbed hold of her arm much to her displeasure, but her pole was confiscated when she let herself get captured.

"Bout damn time yo, I need a drink." Reno jumped of and went out of sight.

"Get proper treatment Reno."

"Whatever." Aeris was tugged by Tseng.

"Come on, some one wants to see you." He tugged again and she had to oblige. They both stepped of the helicopter, only to run into Aeris worst fear.

A hunched man with glasses and a lab coat snickering to himself at the entrance.

_Hojo!..._

To be continued.

* * *

><p>-alright another down! some stuff is explained but the next will have more!Till next time.<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

CH 5

Previously...

"Come on, some one wants to see you." He tugged again and she had to oblige. They both stepped of the helicopter, only to run into Aeris worst fear. A hunched man with glasses and a lab coat snickering to himself at the entrance. 

_Hojo!..._

He walked up and immediately grab Aeris wrist, poking and prodding it with is meek fingers.

"The specimen hasn't been deprived of nutrients, in fact it has grown quiet well, perfect for testing." Aeris stole her hand back and started walking behind Hojo through the rooftop door and into an elevator.

"Tell me Ancient, do you remember me?" Hojo mused as he pressed the button for the 66th floor.

"Yes...very." Aeris tried to keep calm. She was in the presence of the man who had ultimately caused the death of her mother, it was hard not to yell at him in spite. But she knew if she did, the experiments would only get worse.

"Good, then we don't need to get acquainted, much less time wasted, now I need you to hold still." He spun with a syringe and before Aeris could react stuck it into her arm and slowly drew blood.

"AAHHH" She pulled away and held the spot, slowly healing but still dripping from the now full needle. "This will do for now."

The elevator stopped and at the door was an assistant ready to take the blood sample. "Don't alter it! We need it as pure as it is. We have much work to be done!" The assistant scurried off while Aeris was taken to higher levels in the science wing. Inside was a large glass container and on the other side an observation deck. She was guided to the chamber where Hojo pressed a button and it opened.

"Inside." She was shoved inside and the glass closed behind her. "Now lets see, we will need more samples, as well as some tests to see how you react to certain toxins, after all your not entirely like you mother, which will be troublesome, so we will have to take full physicals and a multitude of other tests." Aeris eyes widened in fear at the idea of pain all of these were going to inflict on her, she knew Hojo never cared for the well being of his experiments, as long as he got results.

"Umm...Profesor Hojo?" The madman looked back sharply at the newly appeared assistant.

"Is there any reason you are interrupting me? I have to much to get done to do anything frivolous, go away.? He waved him off and continued pondering how to properly experiment Aeris, his muttering about scalpels and tissue samples made her shudder.

"But sir...its about the energy readings you wanted reexamined." Aeris saw Hojo's eyes widen and he nearly tore the paper away from the assistant and started reading with a mad look in his eye. After about a minute he started his laughter again, only this time it it was darker...more sinister than she had ever remembered he sounded.

"Just as I predicted..." He his smile grew wider at the statement. "Sir? Do you think it was possibly an abnormality...some new form of energy?" the underling asked.

"Don't be such a simpleton!" He snapped. "I know exactly what this is." He was snickering even more. "The fact the energy condensed in such a spot, not to mention antimatter, in such a high amount wasn't because of something being destroyed on a molecular level or making anything...It was to transport something." The room grew colder at his words. Aeris was getting nervous.

_It couldn't be...but then could it be the same thing?.._

"Sir but how did it transport something." Hojo turned and gave back the data."There is no other conclusion that could possibly prove how the energy was used, it transported something then it would show it came from a long enough distance that this travel method was preferred, perhaps a powerful materia spell." The assistant looked puzzled.

"But then professor...what did it transport?" Hojo was in thought before he answered."A whole new being."

The assistant an Aeris both flinched at the conclusion. "Nothing was there, so it had to have moved, therefore its something alive and not of this world." He was passing around with a perma-smile on his face.

"We need to send MPs out to investigate the area, if we are lucky then a promising new specimen will appear." He took a gaze at Aeris. "Would you enjoy the company?"

Aeris was truly scared now. Her intuition was right, that guy...that stranger that had that feeling...the planet was wary.

And now she knew why.

Nathan wasn't an ordinary man. He was completely different from this world...

* * *

><p>"Why the hell are we here?" I groaned, we spent a good hour or so in Wall Market and I was getting impatient, honestly this is the part of the game where I really started rushing to get to the tower so I could start the real part of the journey. And yet we have been wandering around asking all the wrong people for directions to the tower.<p>

"We have to find out where we can get to the tower, and the only place we can possibly get useful information is here." Damn it Cloud why can't you stop thinking linearly! Think like me...like you know what the hell your doing when you run around aimlessly.

"Nathan has a point, we haven't got any leads." Thank you Barret.

"Well where should we go then?"  
>"I say we head to the weapons shop, get better equipment and ask for some info." I might as well get this going along.<p>

"Fine lets get going." Soon enough we were at the huge hunk a junk weapons store and filed in. and older looking mail looked through the fence window at us and sat up.

"What can I get for you guys?" Cloud was musing over the weapons, he looked depressed though. I would be two if the only way I could get good weapons at the start of an adventure was through monsters.

"Tifa, don't you need some better gloves?" She looked at her hands and frowned. "They do seem a bit worn...I would like a metal knuckle." The owner got a pair and put it out front.

"Anything else?"  
>"Hey Cloud what kind of bangles does everyone have?" I asked and he turned. "Iron, why?"<br>"I think we need an upgrade, can't just carry our materia in our pockets willy nilly. Get a few mythril armlets." We paid the man and browsed over to the other working in the back.  
>"Sir, do you know of a way besides the train to get to the plate?" The man stood up and looked over.<br>"Going up to the plate huh? You better have a battery." We looked over to the car battery he was working on. "Your going to sell me something you just found?"

Actually I would agree with him. The thing had wires all around it and seemed to have rust and crud all over it. You know that's a safety hazard.

"Hey you knew? But I repaired it so its alright."  
>"Why do I need a battery to climb the plate."<br>"You'll find out when you get there, that will be 100 gil a piece."

Cloud seemed to get a little angry at the price but eventually caved. You know I never got how the game creators thought up the prices for stuff. I always took it as yen and added a dot after the back two numbers, but that seems to only work every now and again. Keep this kind of system and Gaia's gunna have serious recession problems.

"So what now?" We all exited the shop and stood around.

"Lets check around a little more, maybe someone around don's place has some info." Everyone nodded their head and we went upwards. When we got close to the entrance to the northern most part when we noticed some children huddling around themselves.

"Wanna see somethin awesome? Follow me." Seeing them run off I started towards them. Alright get to the rope, stop thinking about heights and we'll be up in no time. "Nathan what are you doing?"

I look back and see a very confused Tifa, as well as Cloud and Barret. Just standing there... "What?"

"We don't have time to be following kids we need to get to Aeris." Cloud said.

Seriously? God dangit you are not the opportunist I took you for...then again looking back what the hell passes through Clouds mind to follow the kids in the game. And at that note he barges in at everyone's door in the game too...man that makes no sense.

"Come on it could be a lead." They all looked at me skeptically.  
>"Come on...bet you fifty gil this will help somehow." "We don't have time for games, I'll take your fifty so we can get to Aeris faster." Cloud lead the group again and we ended up going through a few alleyways to end up at the huge wall with a wire. We all approached the loan little girl and she turned.<p>

"Everyone climbed up this wire. Looks scary...brrr."  
>"Can we climb it." Tifa said hopefully.<p>

"Yeah it leads to the upper world." Cloud smiled before he frowned. He ground and handed me my money.

"One thing you should know about me Cloud, I only bet on sure things." Barret smiled and pumped his fist...or gun. "Alright, we'll climb this wire!"

"there's no way we can do this, you know how far it goes up?"  
>"There IS a way, look! Whats that look like"<br>"Just a normal wire."  
>"Oh yeah, well to me it looks like a golden shiny wire of hope!" I busted out at that, that was one of my favorite lines. Everyone else just looked at Barret like he was crazy.<p>

"Your right, this is the only way to get to Aeris."  
>"Okay, that was a bad analogy, but, Barret I understand how you feel" Cloud looked at each one of us and nodded his head.<p>

"Lets go!" The first one up was Barret, and if that gun handicaps him I can't tell, like seriously he is ninja-ing up the thing. Next was Cloud who went up a little better. Then me, I decided next since I didn't want to hold up the group for too long, I mean I'm good with climbing a rope like I did in gym...but Tifa is wearing a skirt...sooooo...yeah I don't want a dolphin kick to the face for being a perv. And you know it really wasn't such a bad climb, as long as I thought about the debris breaking my fall and the worst for me being a broken arm, leg, and quite possibly collar bone I was fine with the situation. Yeah I could totally survive that...maybe...probably.

"Nathan if you keep looking down your not going to get to the wire." Tifa snapped at me.

"I get I have to jump down and grab the pipe, what I don't get is why your all cool about this."  
>"We'll leave you and get Aeris ourselves." Cloud said.<p>

"Okay...okay..." When the swing came to me near the middle I slipped off the metal junk I was on and caught the pipe. Right when it got close to the other pipe and train I tried to use the momentum to throw me to the ledge. Only I didn't have the amazing jumping skills like the other three and got caught on the gut clawing at the edge of the thing.

"Shit, Nathan you good?" Barret ran up and offered me a hand up. "Hurt more than your pansy ass punch from earlier."  
>"He's good. Lets go." We all climbed up the pipe and came to the plate, turns out we arrived on the outer edge. We ran through the streets for a few minutes until the area started to look familiar to me. We eventually came up on the tower, just as big an ominous as it was the last time I was here.<p>

"Hey you should know this building well." Barret looked at Cloud expectantly.

"...not really, now that I think about it, this is the first time I've been to the headquarters" Okay that doesn't make sense, If you have Zack's memories and in CC he clearly walked around and conversed on the SOLDIER quarters how in the hell do you not think those are yours?

"You sure? I though almost all SOLDIERS are stationed in Shinra tower at some point?" Cloud tried to think, the reply I got was an agitated look and him hold his head for a few seconds.

"I...can't think that far..."  
>"You know I heard about this place before. Every level above the sixtieth is special and not easy to get into, even for employees. So it must be where they took Aeris." He cocked his gun arm.<p>

"Awright, lets go."  
>"Wait a second! Your not thinking of just going right through the main entrance, are you?" Barret stopped in his tracks and turned.<p>

"Well what else does it look like! I'm gunna kick some Shinra butt and..."  
>"That's not going to work. We've got to find another way..." Tifa looked around and eyeballed the side entrance. "Ain't gunna be no other way! If we keep wasting time like this Aeris'll..."<br>"I know but if we get caught here...hey Cloud what should we do?" He had a thoughtful expression on his face before he turned to me. "Nathan I need everyone opinion, what do you think we should do?"

Alright lets see, Security means grenade troopers, the alternate is running up sixty flights of stairs. Lets see exercise or blown to smithereens...exercise or blown to smithereens...s'plosins or just losing my breath.

"Nathan?"

"I'm still thinking give me a minute, its a tough choice...let me scout ahead, I'm a new member so if AVALANCHE is up on the wanted boards I might not be in it."  
>"If you say so, but be careful." I waved off Cloud and walked into the building like I had a purpose.<p>

"Excuse me sir you need an appointment to...oh its you!" I looked and saw the same receptionist from a few days earlier. "Did you find you way around Midgar?"

"Yes I did, thanks by the way."  
>"What do you need at this time of night?" Oh yeah its like...late o'clock, damn I wish I had a watch. "I was taking a stroll..actually is it possible I could apply for employment here?" Just need a reason to stay inside and look around.<p>

"Right now?"  
>"I'm very forgetful so If I don't do it now it'll get out of my head, and I'd also like to purchase a few potions and I see you have a mini shop."<br>"Well...okay...here are a few forms and you can take a seat over there, the shop is just down the hall." I took the forms and when to the farthest seat, looking around I actually saw quite a few grenade guards keeping posts...damn the game made it seem so easy. I walked around and close to the shop. I noticed a few more by the elevators.

_Okay this might be to dangerous for me...I guess we should take the stairs._

I started to walk of when the bill board caught my eye, I looked and saw another Turtles Paradise flier, I took a stub and pocketed it. I quickly gave the forms back and left. I left my name and checked a few random boxes not to be suspicous. "So, we gunna bust in?"

"No way dude, the place is crawling with guards, the security will cause to big a commotion."  
>"I guess that settles it, we're going to find a way around." Everyone but Barret seemed to agree, Tifa led us through the left corridor and we went through a tunnel, eventually we came up on a door, when we entered we saw the stairs.<p>

The fat mans worst enemy. "Yo...we really gunna take these stairs all the way up?"  
>"We've got to get to Aeris somehow."<br>"Talk about out of the way." Everyone started running up. "I don't have time to argue with you, I'm going" Tifa sprinted towards the top...well she's gunna be tired first. "Yo Tifa, don't go off alone!" Barret and Cloud soon followed with me going up the steps solid snake style! I need to pace myself or I'm gunna be burnt as fuck out before we get to the top.

(5 minutes in.)

Okay everyone's going good, we all have a bit of sweat but we're holding on...this ain't so bad, granted I hate running but we can get there at a reasonable pace. I've kept up with Barret who is worse than the rest of us.

"Don't know...why...the hell...we gotta...climb" Cloud came up from behind and went about a flight ahead of us. "Because we don't want to start a commotion until we've saved Aeris."He slowed down a bit.

"I doubt that's possible though..."  
>"Cloud seriously you gotta have more confidence, you fell through a church and lived. If that were me I'd brag up a storm about how I could do whatever the fuck I want and shit not happen to me." Barret started to smile.<p>

" heh...heh...heh"  
>"Knock it off, your giving me the creeps." Sweet, were at the next section. Time for more stairs!<p>

(10 minutes in)

Aww shit I'm already running out of breath, I got speed, not the stamina of a bull, I didn't even jog this long at school! God its hot in here. "So even you'll fight for someone else. I had you figured wrong I guess." Barret said in between breaths, I can hear him starting to wheeze now, man I guess all that muscles for show. He stopped and started taking breaths while I kept running.

"Who cares what you figured!" Cloud yelled from up ahead. "I'm jus sayin mebbe I waz wrong..." Aww man I can hear him slowing down.

"Heh heh heh..." Oh god Tifa's going now.

"Whats that supposed to mean Tifa?"  
>"Cloud you and me are the only sane ones left, we have to keep it up...for Aeris!"<p>

(15 minutes in)

God no more...I ….. I can...my breath...need...rest.

"How much farther do these stairs go?" Barret was limp running now, I'd be laughing if it wouldn't cause me to lose what precious air I had left.

"Why don't you ask them?" Tifa was only a half flight ahead, fatigue getting to her as well.

"Its not one of them endless stairways or somethin, dya think?" Oh god I would so murder everyone in this building if it became the Mario 64 stairway.

"Of course not!"  
>"Right...couldn't be that." Barret sounded less than convinced.<p>

(20 minutes in)

Damn...all...piss...hell...

"Are we there yet?" You read my...head...thing Barret.

"Not yet."

…...

"There yet?"

"I said not yet!"

…..

"Yo"

"Look, don't even ask! We're way way way way far away from being there, ok?"

...

"Hey Tifa."

"What Nathan?"

"...You see the top yet?"

"SHUT UP!"

(25 minutes in)

…..kill...me...

We got to the next flight exchange and we decided to wait up for Cloud who fell behind even though he always got ahead somehow. If he's not tired I am gunna be pissed.

"Damn man! I've had it! I'm going back."  
>|"And take just as long going down as you did coming up" Tifa was sitting on one of the boxes in the corner. I heard footsteps approaching and Cloud came up from behind, well at least he was sweating and breathing harder...god damn Mako enhancments.<p>

"Come on Barret pull it together."  
>"Yeah, well all I know is that I'm jus flesh and blood...cept this arm of mine...don't treat me like some ex-member of SOLDIER or somethin."<br>"What about me? I'm human too." All I'm hearing right now is "bitch bitch bitch" just hurry up, my legs are burning, lets get it over with.

"Oh do what you want, I'm going on." I walked behind her before she stopped short. "Yeah Nathan...you go first."  
>"Awww fuck that!"<br>"Man Tifa, don't pick on Nate He's had the stairs tough too."  
>"You go ahead to Cloud." He shook his head and followed me.<p>

Well shit...

(30 minutes in)

God my sides are burning, my legs are running on automatic now, guess the adrenaline finally kicked in...at least I have that. "Yo, what floor is this?"

"I gave up counting."

"Why they gotta make these buildings so dang tall?"

"Just think Barret" He looked up "...maybe...the prison cells (pant..pant) are made of chocolate...heh.." HAHAH YES GREAT JOKE ahahahaha...I miss video games...

"Nathan don't go dumb now, you were good till a sec ago."

"Maybe we're close." Tifa mumbled.

(35 minutes in)

"Huff man...I'm beat...Marlene...daddy wanted to see your face one more time."  
>"Would you stop acting like a retard and climb!" Tifa snapped.<p>

"Hey guys...I see a light...Its bright and shiny...and Its at the top of the stairs...I see it."  
>"That's good Nathan, go to the light!" Barret was laughing again.<p>

"I will hit both of you if you don't shut up NOW! Its just a bit more" Thank god I hope were at the top now

"...Maybe."

GOD DANGIT!

(40 minutes in)

"Finally...made...it." Barret blurts out.

"Never wanna see no more stairs, for the rest of my life."  
>"Huff...puff...That really takes it out of you. But this is it we better get ready." Cloud looked at me right next to the door.<p>

"You ready Nathan, or do you need a little more rest, what do you want to do?"

"lets make biscuits! **LETS MAKE BISCUITS!**..."  
>"...I'll take that you need to rest." A good few minutes later and I was sane again!...mostly. We exited the stairway only to run into three heavy mech guards.<p>

_Fuck...forgot about them..._

"Destroy the intruders!"  
>"Barret, give me some nades!" He tossed me two that he collected and I pulled the pin on them both, I lobbed them right at the mechs feet, The resulting explosion caused them to take a knee. They started breaking down their armor, thank god, grunts need one nade and they turn into their speed...suit...things.<p>

"Quick while their down!" Cloud led the rest of the group, each one took down a different guard, Cloud basically smashing the back into his armor, Tifa grappling with one till she snapped his arm and threw him on the ground, and Barret just spraying the last one.

"Nice thinking Nate."  
>"I just want to get this over with now." We searched the body's, we came out with some gil but that was it.<p>

"Hey guys, I found a key card." Cloud went up to the elevator and it came in a few seconds, we stepped in and I found it was actually as roomy as it is in the game. Cloud pressed the button and we started moving up.

"This is the real deal, don't let your guard down." Barret was leaning against the glass.

"I hope Aeris is alright." Tifa thought out loud.

"You think security knows where here?" I asked. I'm still surprised at that scene where the guard is sleeping...then again it would explain why they random encounters were really...well random encounters in the tower. Eventually we exited and we got to the bug room with roaming guards, we sneaked to the side and entered a room looking at the guards change positions in a sporadic manor.

"look at that, all them guards is runnin around, Cloud you go on ahead and signal us when its safe to move." Cloud ran out and hid behind the statues as the guards moved around, eventually we all repeated what he did and got past the guards.

"Okay, we gunna rock!"  
>"Remember we're here to save Aeris."<br>"Hell I know that!" Barret whisper shouted. We all ran up the steps and out the room, we found ourselves in the employee lounge I guess. It was bland and had a few plants spread around with the tables. I see some kind of spread out lunch off on one corner...it looks bland...like sauerkraut and boiled goose.

….I wish my IPod was a boombox.

"So how are we going to get to the next floor?" Tifa asked.  
>"Search around, ask a few questions, maybe we can get a card." Cloud ordered.<p>

The group separated and we started asking around. Okay now where is that one dude... He is supposed to be near the door! That's it. Soon enough I came upon a man with a pressed suit wandering about.

"The hell are you? What are you doing here?"  
>"Ummm, I'm supposed to take a look around the building."<br>"Oh, I see. So you must be that watcha call it... Shinra inc. Repair division." You know this guy must be blind, I'm in dirty tripps and he thinks I repair the building.

"You know this building is starting to fall apart, this door was just pushed open." He was pointing at the entrance, you know that is a legitimate concern, we only have a level 60 card and we just barged in.

"You ought to fix this right away, oh yeah and take a look on the other floors too, I'll give you this." He handed me a level 62 key card and walked off. Cloud and the rest of the gang came over.

"I didn't find anything, one of the receptionists told me how the security works though, its going to be impossible to get thru this place without a card."  
>"We're lucky I got this then." I pulled out the card. Tifa turned to me, confused.<p>

"Where did you get that?"  
>"An employee gave it to me, by the way, if anyone asks we are from the repair division." They looked at me funny but we went up to the next floor. Looking around we saw it wasn't as lit up as the last floor. Walking around we eventually stumbled into a room with and older looking man.<p>

"hmm? Oh who might you be?"  
>"None of your business." Barret barked.<p>

"Oh you must be...ahem." He coughed nervously.

"Well who are you?" Cloud asked.

"Me? I'm Domino, The mayor of Midgar."  
>"Mayor? So you have control over over what happens around here." Cloud noted.<p>

"Actually , I'm mayor in name only. The city and everything in it is run by Shinra inc."  
>"Its a sad world we live in if politics is over run by business." I said out loud.<p>

"Indeed, my only real job is watching over Shinra's documents, ME, the mayor, a librarian! Ohhh..." He looked depressed.

"Listen we don't have time to chat, we have to keep going." Cloud said.

"You want to get upstairs? I'll tell you what, if you can guess the pass word, I'll give you my key card."  
>"...That's it?"<br>"Yes, that's it, Guess the password and I'll give you my key card, get it on the first try and I'll throw in a special item.

"We don't have time for this!"  
>"Cloud just guess, its probably something simple too, a four letter word like BOMB or something." I never liked this minigame, it was always tedious.<p>

"BOMB!"

We looked over at the ecstatic looking old man. "God I love the sound of that, BOMB! I'm so angry, I'm like a walking time bomb waiting to explode!" He pulled out a card. "Here, and since you got it on the first try." He handed me a blue materia. Looking at It it seemed like nothing special. The inside just glowed.

"An elemental materia, interesting." I noted. "Well it don't look like It do much."Barret said outloud.

"Actually it adds the element of another materia to your armor or weapon, useful when an enemy is weak against something. I put it in the link slot with my fire, looking closely I saw the blue orb get the same element as the fire on the inside. "Cool."

"This doesn't make much sense, why help us?" Tifa asked.

"Why would I do something like this? To mess with them of course! Shinra's been torturing me forever, that's why I was a little rough on you all. Now go up there and make them suffer. This ought to make us even." So now we got the mayors support...like it matters. We all left and went upstairs again, we entered and found nobody around, inspecting further we found a computer room.

"What does this thing do?" We approached it. "Cloud, put the key card in, see whats up." He slide the card through and the thing started operating.

"….Verifying key card...Level B employee: verified, you are permitted to open doors on this floor up to three times."  
>"What does this thing do?" Barret asked.<p>

"I guess there is stuff on this floor and only certain employees can access certain things...maybe if we do this right we can get some good stuff."  
>"That's good Nathan but we don't have time to be opening doors randomly."<br>"Cloud let me try by myself, I can get around faster."  
>"...You have five minutes, then we leave." I nodded and ran out. <p>

_Okay now if I remember its this door, and then this one, okay there's a door over there._

I walked inside and found a slip of paper marked with some serial numbers. I looked around the ceiling and found the air duct, Using a few boxes I climbed inside. And its roomy enough in here just to crawl on my knees.

...That is a major design flaw, these guys need to get the repair division in here to look at this.

(meanwhile)

"How do you think Aeris is holding up?" Barret was pacing, its only been two minutes.

"I think she's still okay, but we have to hurry, the longer we're here bigger the chance we get caught  
>"...Hey Cloud."<br>"Yeah Barret."  
>"You ever heard of a portable music player?" He raised an eyebrow.<p>

"You mean one of those carry around CD players? Barret this isn't the time to listen to music."  
>"No No, I mean like a little square thing, its smaller than a PHS."<br>"Barret where did this come from?"  
>"When I was with Marlene she asked if Nathan could play and sing something from his device, I was confused by what she meant too."<br>"Nathan has something that plays music with CD's or cassettes?...where would he get something like that."  
>"Marlene said he made it." Everyone stopped when they heard shuffling noise. They looked around until something fell from the air vent. "owwwwwwww."<br>"what the...Nathan"  
>"I think I have whiplash..."<br>"You just hit the wall Nathan, your neck is fine."  
>"I meant ass whiplash...ow." I got up and pulled out the coupons.<p>

"Use these, maybe we can get some cool stuff." Cloud took the slips and put them in the computer. We got an all materia, four slots, and star pendant. "Everybody take one and we move on." I nabbed the star pendant. Tifa added her all to a restore materia, and Barret switched out his armlet for the four slots. "Lets get moving." We moved thru the stairs again, level 64 was some gym, I'd get Cait Siths ultimate weapon...but why give Reeve power early in the game? He could nab our asses before he turns into a good guy. Level 65 sucked a lot, we kept running into security drones and had to put a scale model of Midgar back together, and even I couldn't remember the exact order the chests opened up so we doubled back every now and again, after ten minutes we finally solved the puzzle and got the level 66 card.

"You know the big wigs are having a meeting right now." While sneaking we overheard a conversation coming from one of the rooms.

"Really? Must be something serious if all of them will be there."  
>"A meeting huh...we should see what its about." Barret whispered.<p>

"But how, we can't just bust in."  
>"Guys I think I have an idea." They looked at me.<p>

"On the 63rd floor the air ducts were pretty spacious, maybe we can find a vent and crawl till we find the meeting room."  
>"That's not a half bad idea Nate." We all searched around, eventually Cloud said he found a duct in the bathroom. Climbing in we moved around. We eventually got over the meeting.<p>

"Geez, that's a lotta suits."  
>"We have the damage estimates for sector seven." Reeve said.<p>

"Considering those factories we already set up and all the investments, the damage is estimated at approximately 10 billion gil...the estimated cost to rebuild is..." "We're not rebuilding."  
>"What?"<br>"We're leaving sector seven as it is, and restarting the Neo-Midgar plan."  
>"...than the Ancients?" he president leaned forward.<p>

"The promised land will be ours. I want you to raise Mako rates, 15% in every area."  
>"Rate hike! Rate hike! And does that include our space program in the budget?" Palmer was bouncy up and down...I'm surprised he can even jump, let alone that high out of his chair.<p>

"Reeve and Scarlet will divide the extra income from the rate increase." Shinra said coldly.

"Aww man."  
>"But sir. If you raise the rates, the people will lose confidence..." Reeve protested.<p>

"It'll be alright. The ignorant citizens won't lose confidence, they'll trust Shinra inc. even more" Off to the right Heidegger was laughing his ass off.

"After all, we're the ones who saved sector seven from avalanche!

"That's a good claim if there weren't so many holes." Reeve stated. Heidegger stopped laughing and looked angry.

"And what do you mean by that?"  
>"I read the reports, and many people claimed that AVALANCHE had evacuated a few hundred before the plate collapsed." Reeve smiled.<p>

"A few claims won't cause alarm." Shinra waved it off. We heard some slamming from the doors and then came everybody's favorite scientist.

"Hojo. hows the girl?"  
>"As a specimen, she is inferior to her mother. I'm still in the process of comparing her to her mother, Ifalna, but for now the difference is 18%"<br>"How long will the research take?"  
>"...probably 120 years. Its probably impossible to finish in our lifetime. Or in the lifetime of the specimen too for that matter." He started pacing around, mumbling to himself.<p>

"That's why were looking into breeding her. Then we could create one that could withstand our research for a long time."  
>"What about the promised land? Will it hinder our plans?"<br>"...That's what I need to plan. The mother is strong...and yet has her weaknesses."  
>"Then that concludes our meeting." Everyone started filing out, with scarlet making the stinks comment, we were silent till we were sure everyone had left.<p>

"They were talking about Aeris...right?"  
>"I really hope not with how that scientist described stuff." I say.<p>

"Probably though."  
>"lets follow'em." After exiting out the vents we wandered around the hallway, Cloud made us stop short from turning a corner though. Peering over we saw Hojo at the door.<p>

"Hojo...huh.." We start following the scientist. Eventually stopping at the 67th floor door.

"I remember him...that Hojo guy. He's in charge of Shinra's Science Department. Cloud, don't you know him?" The blond shook his head.

"This is the first time I've actually seen him. So...that's what he looks like." Great, he has the memories of two people and partial amnesia. Our protagonist everyone. We started wandering again, we came up on a huge mechanical room, and in front of us was Hojo staring at a glass dome. Inside was what could be described as a large red lion, but from where we were standing you could see some canine features as well, I noted the tail which was on fire at one end. My thoughts were cut off however by the sound of echoing steps, everyone decided the nearby stack of boxes would make adequate cover.

"Is this today's specimen?"  
>"Yes, we're starting right away. Raise it to the upper level." The man walked out and Hojo moved closer to the glass case.<p>

"My precious specimen." His voice was cold, yet filled with infatuation...something that made my stomach knot at the sound. He eventually left and the rest of us came out to look around. Tifa went right up to the dome and started staring at Nanaki.

"Precious specimen...? Is it going to be used for a biological experiment?" I walked up and looked inside.

Nanaki looked over at me with is good eye and held my gaze for about a minute. I smiled. He looked away, lost interest I guess. "Jenova."

I looked over and saw Cloud shivering while he was looking at the nearby glass door, He held his head started to thrash around,mumbling. I ran up and tried to calm him down.

"Dude, pull it together!" I shook him till finally he calmed down. Tifa soon came over and helped lift him a little.

"Jenova...Sephiroth's...so...they've brought it here." Him still staring at the glass panel. "Cloud, be strong!"  
>"Did you see it?"<br>"See what?" Barret said, oblivious to the monster not six feet from him.

"Its moving...still alive?" Barret walked over and took a look for himself, when he turned he actually looked pale.

"Where's its fucking head? This whole things stupid, lets get going." We all followed, I didn't look in the tank, I knew from the game it was creepy. Try to look at it in real life...I could guarantee I would go insane.

"Hey, what are you doing on this floor?" We all looked over and saw SOLDIER 3rd class with his buster style sword drawn.

"...Were Shinra repair division." I quickly said. Hoping we could avoid a fight.

"The repair division has no access to the science department, your intruders!" From behind him came to machines, large bird faced things seemingly levitating on spinning blades.

I hate moth slashers. "Guys we need to shut him up!"

I started launching fireballs, in the enclosed space I did decent damage to the very badly dodging machines. However, an agile 3rd was able to weave through. "You will be killed, surrender now trespasser!" Cloud popped up and clashed with his sword, it being bigger he had the weight advantage and was able to knock him back, the two kept clashing with Cloud getting in the occasional slice. Tifa and Barret started working on their own slasher while I kept my focus on another. It kept moving around until it got close and started to point its blades at me. It caught me off guard and got a good rotation on my stomach, I jumped back and fired another shot, only seeming to morph the metal around it.

"Damn it." It came at me again so I kept my hand on Fusion, I drew and actually slashed a few of the blades coming at me off. The machine tried to hit me with its arms, but being like T-Rex arms I could dodge easily. I looked over and saw the slasher Tifa and Barret had was already a hunk of junk, while Cloud was still fighting off the third. That is until Tifa came in, I saw the 3rd try to get a slash at Cloud but she snatched the sword right out of his hands. The third didn't even get to process the though before he was cleaved clear in half by the buster sword.

"You think security knows were here?" Tifa said after setting the sword down.

"Doubt it, we weren't loud, and he only had machines with him and I don't hear an alarm." I explained. Cloud holstered the buster sword and inspected the one Tifa took. I guess she used steal materia, she was too fast to be able to pull a move off like that. Interesting ability.

"I could use this." Cloud took the blade and swung it around. He placed it down and started to pull apart some stuff, looking closer I saw he was stripping the materia holders and adding them to the Buster sword.

"Your not just gunna take it?"  
>"I've had this for a long time, I don't want to part with it, so I'll just use what I can from other swords to make it better." ...Interesting. Looks like Cloud can't hall around two huge swords. Then how does that work in the game?...forget it, its to much to think about this now.<p>

"I also snagged this." She pulled out a bangle, Cloud looked it over and handed it back. "Carbon bangle, it can be useful."

I went back to my slasher and started taking it apart, on one of the arms I found what I was looking for, another Carbon bangle. I knew physics made a little more sense now, after all how can you only steal an item and if you search the body and it not be there?

"Alright lets go. I got a feeling we're close." After I nabbed the poison materia next to the door we entered the specimen delivery elevator, in a few seconds we were on the next floor, we bust out and see the large glass case with Aeris inside, and the madman next to it.

"Aeris!" Hojo just seem to brush off our sudden entrance.

"Aeris? Oh. Is that her name? What do you want?"  
>"We're taking Aeris back!" He pulled out Hard-edge in a threatening manor.<p>

"Outsiders..." Hojo mumbled.

"Shoulda noticed it earlier, you."  
>"There are so many frivolous things in this world." He spoke out loud, not even directed at us. Hell he's acted like we don't really exist all that much. Everyone started to get closer, we all were in ready positions.<p>

"Are you going to kill me? I don't think you should. The equipment here is very delicate. Without me, who could operate them?" Cloud groaned.

"That's right. I recommend you think things out logically before you make any rash moves." That's it I'm calling your bluff.

"I guess your assistant up there is for show then?" The scientist looks at me with an irritated look, I snickered. "Bring in the specimen now!"

Soon everyone started to hear a rising sound, and Nanaki rose inside the same glass case as Aeris and started in his threatening pose, with a very convinced Aeris running around. "Cloud help!"

"What do you think your doing?"  
>"Lending a helping hand to an endangered species...both of them are on the brink of extinction... if I don't help both animals will disappear."<br>"Animals? That's terrible! Aeris is a human being!" Tifa pleaded.

"Your gunna pay."  
>"Barret can't you do anything?" Said man ran up and aimed his gun at the glass.<p>

"Alright! Stand back!"  
>"Stop!" Barret less loose a whole shower of bullets on the glass, most of it held up but there were large cracks, eventually it lit up with a large yellow light.<p>

"Wh...what are you...My precious specimens!" He frantically pressed buttons until the door opened, when the light died down Nanaki was right in his face and pounced on him, everyone steered clear while he was trying to maul the scientist. Cloud took the opportunity.

"Now's our chance to get Aeris!" He ran inside and picked her up, from my view she was actually unharmed. "Thanks Cloud." She ran off, but before Cloud exited there was a mechanical sound. He looked down the hole in the container and backed away.

"Cloud...whats wrong?" Tifa said, worried.

"The elevator is moving." Hojo kept Nanaki off long enough to talk about his creation. "This is no ordinary specimen. This is a very veracious specimen!"

He sounded almost happy at that. "He's rather strong, I'll help you out."

Everyone's eyes seem to bug out out at the voice coming from Nanaki. I was even put back by the sound of his voice. It was calm, almost sage like. "It talked?"  
>"All talk as much as you want later miss." I busted a gut, the seriousness to the joke was just to much. Barret looked at me funny. I ran up with Cloud to the crimson mutt.<p>

"We'll take care of that monster. Somebody take Aeris safe somewhere..."  
>"I'm fine, I just need to get my barrings." She said, Cloud was about to disapprove but I butted in.<p>

"If she says she's okay, then she's okay, I'll give her a materia or two and she can help." Cloud after a minute reluctantly nodded and turned back to Nanaki.

"Whats your name?"  
>"Hojo has named me Red XIII, a name with no meaning what so ever to me. Call me whatever you wish." Cloud shook his head and stood back up.<p>

"That will do, come on!" The elevator reached our floor, inside was one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen.

HO512 looked like Frankensteins leftover brother. The shoulder with the mouth actually looked like it was trying to breath, the tentacles it had on its face moved around independently and just when I wasn't crept out enough out from its back sprouts its supporting enemies.

"Ignore them, get the main monster and the underlings will die off." Red said before he ran passed the poison sprout things and jumped to bite the huge mess of a monster. The thing screamed and tried to slash at him before he jumped out the way.

"Nathan, go give Aeris something." I ran over and gave her my left over bangle with the elemental poison combination in it. "Sorry I can't give you more, get Tifa to give you a restore." She ran off while I started to hack at the sprouts. They were tough, Fusion could only get small slices in.

"Nathan! Focus on the main monster." Cloud said reading his sword while Barret pelted the experiment with bullets, which were doing very little damage.

"Fine." I wanted to get rid of the little creeps for a short time so we could focus on the big guy. I tried to jumped and slash at the boss, only to have my arm caught and through against the container while the thing focused on Barret and his bullets. It got a good gash on him when Cloud slashed its back wide open. Only for it to close right back up and it turn around to spew poison right in Clouds face. He stumbled back until Tifa came up to help him up and give him antidote.

"It regenerates? How the hell are we supposed to kill that thing?" I came up and snatched the all materia from Clouds bangle. "Red, go for another bite!" I yelled and he complied, he did another lounge and the creature fell when the dog took a good chunk of his leg.

"Okay! Fire!" I called out the spell, the all materia lit up and cause the fireballs to hit everyone of the enemies. The little sprouts burnt while the leg of 512 stopped healing.

"Slash and burn, every hit cauterize the wound so it can't grow back." Cloud got up and nodded, Tifa kept her distance though, only getting a hit in behind the creatures back, or defending when it would make more minions. Aeris would provide healing for everyone and Barret supporting fire. It was mostly Cloud and Red doing the most damage while I stunted its healing factor.

"We need a better strategy, if we wait security will be here any minute." Cloud pointed out. I thought about how the monster was, 512 was getting sluggish so its attacks would get uncoordinated...

"Cloud I need you to do something."  
>"What?"<br>"I need you to get a good slash in so I can get in close while it regenerates, then when I attack, start hacking away, and Barret is your big shot ready?"  
>"I need a little time, but I can't shoot while charging."<br>"Good enough."  
>"Nathan what are you planning?"<br>"You'll see, I just need everyone to wail on it when I start attacking."  
>"If you keep casting you'll over exert yourself!" Cloud protested.<p>

"I'm totally fine, I haven't gotten spotty vision or light headed. Just trust me." He was looking at me quizzically before he slowly nodded his head. Cloud ran forward and made a powerful horizontal slash on the experiment. It roared as it fell on its weak legs, I saw the flesh start to bubble and grow. I ran in and took deep breaths. The thing defended itself and tried to poison me, the star pendant put up a small barrier and kept the smog out my face.

"Now! Dragon fire!" I took my largest breath and put a flame near my mouth.I blew a steady stream and started spraying the monster with flames. Not a second later Cloud came up and hacked of an arm, the flesh was burnt before it could grow and the creature roared, I looked and saw Barret take aim, the energy pooling into his weapon.

"Get out the way!" I ran off from the flaming abomination. Barret fired his big shot, that's when it got messy.

The thing didn't stand a chance with its flesh in a very vulnerable state, it was blown apart, small chunks still flaming while others were to damaged to grow back. What was left of the body slumped. Everyone relaxed when it didn't try to get back up.

"Aeris, you alright?"  
>"She seems alright...in many ways." Tifa said looking away from Red. He walked up to the group.<p>

"I have a right to choose too, I don't like two legged things."  
>"What are you?" Barret came up with his gun cooling down."<br>"An informed question. But difficult to answer. I am what you see." ...Actually is Red XIII considered a furry? I mean he has the brain and voice of a person 

"You must have many questions, but first, lets get out of here. I'll lead the way."  
>"Cloud, so did you come for me?" Aeris came forward but when Red jumped over the railing bars she stepped back.<p>

"I apologize for what happened back there, I was merely acting to throw Hojo off guard..." Speaking of the lunatic I couldn't see him, I guess he slipped out when we were killing one of his products.

"Now we've saved Aeris, we ain't got no need to be in this building so lets get out of here."  
>"If all of us go together, we'll get noticed. Lets break into two groups...Tifa, take Nathan and Aeris with you."<br>"Okay, we'll see you on the 66th floor elevator." We ran off leaving the rest of the team to explore the rest of the lab. We went back down the specimen elevator and started towards the stairs.

"Aeris are you really okay? Did Hojo do anything to you?" Tifa was really concerned, I agreed though, I hoped Aeris wasn't injected with anything bad.

"No, the most he did was get blood samples. I was lucky." She looked down.

"I'm guessing you won the lottery on experimentation with Hojo?" I asked, knowing full well how most of his experiments were treated. "You could say that." We ran down the stairs and were near the elevator before we went inside.

"Okay now we wait."  
>"Okay." we waited for a while, it wasn't all that bad really, nice, quiet...really peacful all of a sudden. I was getting bored.<p>

"Hey Tifa, do you have that enemy skill materia?"  
>"The what?"<br>"...The enemy skill materia...you know from the experiment monster."  
>"There was a materia?"...oh god don't tell me.<p>

"No one picked up the materia?"  
>"Didn't you say you saw it?" Aeris asked.<p>

"Well yes but I thought everyone else did too, it was right in the middle of the container."  
>"I didn't notice." Oh my god am I the only person that loots dead body's for the good stuff? That's just idiotic. "I'll be back." Tifa held out her hand in a stop fashion. "Hold It, I told Cloud we would wait here."<br>"Its good now, I can run up, nab it and come back."  
>"Why do you want that materia?"<br>"Aeris, we need as much fire power as we can get when we are running from Shinra."  
>"Your not going and that's final." Tifa was still in front of the doorway...Oh wait.<p>

I went right up to Tifa, took the level 67 card, and picked her up before tossed her to the side and ran out the door. The one perk about short people is that their lighter.

"Nathan!"  
>"I'll be right back don't worry! Nothings gunna happen." I sneaked back through the corridors. Careful to avoid any employees around. In about a minute I was back up in the science lab. Right next to the old body of HO512 was a bright yellow materia and and old looking coin thing, most likely a talisman. I pocketed both and ran back the way I came. I was close to the elevator before I heard talking, I peered around the corner. Tseng was right at the elevator door, talking to Cloud and everyone who were cornered by Rude.<p>

"It must have been a real thrill for you...Did you enjoy it?" I heard a grunt, it was Cloud, irritated he was caught in the trap. I almost feel stupid though, I was more concerned about a currently useless materia.

"hmm? Where is Nathan?" I perked at my name being mentioned. "Reno has been very unruly about seeing him again."  
>"He's gone...He took a different way." Barret said I think. Its really hard to hear from this far. Tseng groaned before the elevator door closed. Everyone was captured, save me. And in less than an hour or so Sephiroth is going to kill every employee on the next few levels.<p>

Fuck my life.


	7. Chapter 7

_Hot damn we finally get to the chapter that really hits this off! it took me a while since I really couldn't choose what direction to go in with the story, but I found it and decided to post just a day shy from my routine. So without further adu or some other french word. here is ch 7 of Stranger from the Sky!_

_I don't own any Final fantasy represented material.  
><em>

* * *

><p><em>Ch 7<em> 

**ATE failure**

A rookie mistake. Cloud couldn't believe he made such a bad choice. The elevators would obviously be monitored after the lab incident, and now here he was, paying the price, being escorted by Turks to the president. Eventually he was presented in front of said man. Looking around he saw everyone else in handcuffs and Red XIII in shackles.

"You all got caught too?" Cloud at least thought everyone besides him, Barret, and Red got out. Looking around though he noticed both Nathan and Aeris were missing. "Where is Aeris?"  
>"In a safe place." The president responded coolly.<p>

"And Nathan?" Barret yelled.

"Actually I am wondering that myself...Tseng?" The Turk shifted uncomfortably.

"He wasn't with any of the groups when we captured them, he might have taken the emergency stairs out." Cloud relaxed at that. At least one of them got out.

"We'll discuss this matter later." The president said to Tseng. He then turned to the group.

"You know, that girl is the last surviving ancient." He got up and held his hands up, for emphasis Cloud assumed.

"Don't you know? They called themselves Cetra, and lived thousands of years ago. Now they are just a forgotten page in history."  
>"Cetra...That girl, is she a survivor of the Cetra?" Red asked. He seemed to have knowledge on the subject, he would have to ask how later. Shinra ignored the question. He continued his rant.<p>

"Cetra, or the ancients will show us the way to the Promised Land. I'm expecting a lot out of her."  
>"The Promised Land? Isn't that just a legend?" The man finally stopped and acknowledged the crimson beast.<p>

"Even so, its just to appealing to not pursue. Its been said the Promised land is very fertile. And if the land is fertile..."  
>"Then there's gotta be Mako!" Barret yelled, now fully comprehending what the man was getting to.<p>

"Exactly, that is why our money sucking reactor is necessary. The abundant Mako will just come out on its own, and that is where Neo-Midgar will be built. Shinra's new glory." Barret immediately spat on his suit.

"Bullshit! Quit dreaming!"

"Oh really? Don't you know? These days all that it takes for dreams to come true is money and power." He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped off his suit.

"Well, that is all for our meeting." Cloud heard rapid footsteps until a bald Turk came up from behind.

"Come on, out this way." Everyone obliged...well everyone except Barret.

"Hold it! I got a lot I wanna say to you!" Cloud looked back seeing Barret struggle against the Turk pushing him along with the group.

"And Tseng." Cloud looked at the Turk being called.

"I want a warrant out for that man. Tell the MP's dead or alive is acceptable." His eyes widened. Barret started yelling again but they were roughly escorted back down stairs and into an elevator. Coming out he remembered the floor they were on and was escorted to an unexplored part. He was shoved into one of the holding cells along with Tifa while Barret and Red were put in one next door. Tifa took the bed while Cloud opted to stand, thinking of a way on getting out.

"Psst (Can we get out?)" Tifa whispered. Cloud was a little skeptical, he didn't have his sword so he couldn't smash his way through, and concerning the thick steal walls that was the only possibility.

"(Kinda hard.)"  
>"(Don't give up.)" Tifa gave him a reassuring smile. He stood by the door, thinking about how everyone else was doing.<p>

"...Cloud, are you there?" He perked up at the sound.

"Aeris? You safe?" Tifa looked over, surprised as well. To think they would put her in just a regular cell...

"Yeah, I'm alright." he heard her whisper how she knew he'd come. He felt sad that he was inside just like her...she didn't need to know that.

"Hey I'm your bodyguard right?"  
>"The deal was for one date, right?" He froze a little as he felt Tifa sit up behind him.<p>

"...Oh I get it."  
>"...Tifa? Tifa your there too?"<br>"EXCUSE me." She said sarcastically, see seemed to mean it in good humor, but its a little hard to tell with Tifa.

"You know Aeris, I have a question"  
>"What?" "Does that Promised Land really exist."<br>"I don't know." He heard pacing from the other side of the wall.

"All I know is...The Cetra were born from the Planet, speak with the Planet, and unlock the Planet..and then...the Cetra will return to the Promised Land, the land that promises supreme happiness."  
>"What does that mean?"<br>"More than words...I don't know."  
>"...Speak with the Planet?" Cloud was confused, how do you communicate with something like a planet? "Just what does the planet say?"<p>

"Its full of people and noisy. That's why I can't make out what their saying."  
>"You hear it now?"<br>"I...I only heard it in the church in the Slums. Mother said Midgar wasn't safe...my real mother...Someday I'll get out of Midgar, speak with the Planet, and find my Promised land." He heard her determination die down at the end.

"That's what mom said. I thought I would stop hearing her voice as I grew up. But..."

Barret spoke up now. "So then if the Promised Land exists and the Shinra get there, then they will destroy it. We can't let that happen. That's It! AVALANCHE is back in business, I'm recruiting new members. Me, Tifa, Cloud, Aeris, Nate and what about you, will you join?" he asked Red. "I really can't say..but I have a few questions about your friend."

"Like what?" Cloud spoke up.

"He seems very unique..."

Tifa interrupted. "I don't know, Nathan just seems like a normal guy."  
>"I'm more focused on his magical power than anything else."<br>"What do ya mean?" Barret asked. "He's talking about how Nathan can pull off his techniques in magic." Cloud spoke up, deciding to sit down.

"What? I don't see anything strange about it."  
>"You are new to using materia then?" Red asked. "Well..yeah but I don't see..."<br>"Then you don't know about some side effects from casting."  
>"What?"<br>"He means magic exhaustion Barret." Tifa looked at him, confused on the topic as well. "Barret, you know how hard it is to concentrate in the middle of battle to cast a spell right?"  
>"Yeah... sometimes I get light headed or see spots"<br>"And you know how you have a limit to casting, otherwise you start to go over the amount of magic you can use."  
>"Yeah...your point?"<br>"Nathan casts in such succession that its as if its second nature, he doesn't need to concentrate that hard."  
>"So doesn't that just make Nathan a natural?" Cloud groaned. Barret was real oblivious sometimes.<p>

"Casting in such a fashion causes a person to speed up the M.E. process." Red clarified.

"Correct, but that's not whats off."  
>"Well what then.?" Tifa asked.<p>

"He doesn't just cast a simple spell, he used fire to make a flame thrower, or that flaming punch."  
>"And that's bad?"<br>"Tifa, the reason people only cast for a split second and the spell goes is because it drains on a persons mental stability and concentration. A continuous cast just causes the person to feel magic exhaustion faster. Even if the have a high amount of magic energy."  
>"So what are you sayin about Nate?"<p>

"...He should be catatonic right now..."

He let that sit with everyone. Nathan somehow could cast without the worry of M.E. He had a limit where he couldn't cast like everyone else, he saw him drink ether. Even SOLDIERS didn't cast like he did though. It was a known safety precaution.

"...Maybe there's more to him that we know." Aeris spoke out.

"Guys lets just get some sleep, we can talk about this later." Cloud nodded. He felt that his eyelids were heavy. Hopefully Nathan would get out of Midgar...maybe get home and be safe.

The person to stay awake the longest though was Aeris, looking at the cold ceiling, thinking about how Nathan had some many strange things about him.

_What are you doing here?_

* * *

><p>Oh god I'm screwed.<p>

I'm dead...no way out.

I can't avoid this if I want to keep with Cloud and everyone else.

I had been on the gym level for about an hour, biding my time in one of the rest area's. I had considered running, but the thought was quickly thrown out since I have to be with the group to prevent some of the events in the future. I didn't have the sector five key so I couldn't enter and exit at will...and I would most likely be shot on sight trying to run out the city.

"God why didn't I just stay with the group." I think its my gaming tendency, when ever I played I would want to have 100% completion, no item left in a cave, no secret weapon locked, no side quest left behind. And now that's gotten me a one way ticket to being slashed into hundreds of pieces. I looked out the hallway, everyone had left already. No use for a gym now in the middle of the night. I wanted to sleep but I was afraid I would miss to much or get caught and taken somewhere else. I had been sitting in the corner of the locker room listening to the last of my songs on my IPod. I never found a port to charge it, so I used it to keep me awake as long as I could. It had just turned to _Don't worry, be happy_. I laughed a little as the song did nothing to still my anxiety. I shut it off, deciding against using the last of my power. I stood up and started walking to get to the stairs, I could at least hide out in a closet or something until Sephiroth or Jenova went passed, I don't think they can sense me if I kept my breathing low and calm. I started ascending, one thing caught my eye though was now the severe lack of guards walking around...in fact I didn't see any employees around while going up. Eventually I got to the meeting room floor, about to go up when I heard footsteps, I hid and kept my sword at the ready when the person finally came in sight my hand fell.

He was covered in blood, not his own. He must have slipped. His expression held fear, but his eyes looked as if all his life was sucked right out of him.

"You idiot! The evacuation was announced ten minutes ago! You...we have to get out now!" he started shaking me. I held onto his shoulders to calm him down. It did little help.

"Whats wrong?"  
>"You don't know? Someones killing people on the higher levels! Everyone's being evacuated! Its him! I know it is! No one has that same silver hair!" I froze. Sephiroth had begun to strike.<p>

"How did you live?"  
>"I hid and ran, you should to!" he pushed me off and kept descending the stairs at a hurried pace. I looked up at the stairs. I didn't want to go...but since the silent alarm was raised maybe he had already gone up a few levels with Jenova. I crept up the stairs and through the 67th entry door. I didn't hear any footsteps, but the smell of blood was very prominent. Turning the corner I saw the first victims.<p>

A suit and multiple security personnel, lying in a pool of their own blood. I quickly turned away and covered my mouth. It was more messed up than I could have imagined. I carefully walked over their body's and turned down the hallway. I slowly got towards the middle of the hallway until a chill ran down my spine, I looked behind me and saw nothing, I turned back and regretted it.

Standing at the end of the hallway was Sephiroth. His eyes focused on me, and his bloody Masamune out at his side.

In the face of fear I never was like anyone else. When people jumped behind and scared me, I punched at them. If I was pushed in the dark I ran to head butt whoever did it.

This case was completely different.

I pulled out Fusion but ran away instead, believing I could keep a defence behind me while I got away and hid.

I severely underestimated a SOLDIER First Class's speed.

In less than a second Sephiroth had slashed at the wall I had turned and made a deep gash, I kept running until I looked and saw him almost teleport and take another strike, I ducked and and ran into Reds former container while his sword was caught in the other containment cell. I however tripped over a former employee and fell, I tried to think of ways to get away. The elevator at the other end of the room would probably be destroyed and me with it. I turned and looked at him, a small smile on his face.

Like a cat playing with a weak mouse.

"I'm impressed you dodged those slashes, however your luck has run out." He pulled out Masamune and flicked off the excess blood. I wanted to move, but anything would cause me to die faster. I wanted to savor what precious seconds I had. I lifted his sword and placed it right next to my neck with unmatched speed, I couldn't keep up with it. I closed my eyes, knowing my death was immanent. I had wondered whether I would go to the life stream, or be sent somewhere else. Hopefully it wouldn't be painful...

"...Mother...?"

I opened an eye lid and looked up. He was entirely focused on the container behind us. It started leaking fluid from inside from the previous slashs. He eventually left to walk over to it, having another sinister smile on his face.

"I'll free you." In a split second he slashed the container door to pieces and out came the rest of the liquid. He waited for about a minute before something walked out.

Jenova.

When it walked out I swear my heart stopped. The skin was completely white, the only parts that had any color were bleeding profusely, enough that in the time it was out Jenova was starting to make a puddle. It had large appendages on its back that seemed like deformed wings. And the biggest scare was it had no head...and it talked.

"Thank you my son." The voices was high pitched, it sounded female...but the way it spoke the words made it feel like a little kid, and the monster under his bed told him good night. "I'm sorry I took so long mother."

"It is fine, as long as we leave this place, there is nothing here." I looked ad saw Sephiroth look back at me.

"Just as soon as I take care of this weakling mother, then we can go." He came back over and repositioned his sword.

"You will put your sword down my son." His eyes widened and he looked back.

"Why?"  
>"You may not be able to see it, but I noticed this one when he came into this world." My eyes widened. She said she knew I wasn't from the planet. Sephiroth looked back at me with a confused glance. Jenova walked over and stood right in front of me. The body knelt down. Giving me a very good look at the clean sliced throat.<p>

"To think...your like me." Its hand came up and my breath hitched. Jenova started to caress my face. Like a mother consoling a child. I could feel the cold blood flow down on my face. "You have recognition in your eyes, you know of me...yes you could be of use." The throat shifted around, somehow it keeps making the voice of a woman. My hand on Fusion was shaking badly, I couldn't hide the fear inside of me.

"Mother why would we use such a weakling." Sephiroth deadpanned.

"You may not see the potentially he has, but its there...it just needs time. Like you my son." Jenovas hand left my face and the body stood up. "He's alone...like I was. Let him live, so he may grow and strengthen...to rid this world, to become what he is meant to be." It started walking away, towards the specimen elevator.

"Come Sephiroth, the puppet will soon wake." He nodded and briskly walked passed.I heard the elevator activate and lift off.

I didn't move...trying to comprehend that it was Jenova that knew I wasn't from here. The fact she acknowledged I wasn't from the Planet either...or that I knew what she was... Finally all the fear had caught up to me and I threw up. My body couldn't handle the shock. After about a minute of retching it leaned back onto the container, my stuff falling out my pockets...I didn't care, I was starring into space.

It was nice, I imagined I was back home...boring Colorado, my little brother came up to me, I'd forgotten how much I hated him, but he was a relieving sight. Even my favorite big brother was there...I was so happy. I don't know how long I was there...it could have been seconds...it could have been minutes...hell eternity could have passed and I wouldn't have known. It took me a while to wake up to reality though...that and a harsh slap across the face.

* * *

><p>Cloud woke up, his dreamless and voiceless slumber was interrupted. He looked around the cell. Tifa was still asleep, but the door to the room was open.<p>

_What?_

Checking to see if he wasn't dreaming Cloud pinched himself and felt the pain, he slowly got up and put his arm through the door, it wasn't just a dream then.

"The doors open...when did it open?" He exited and looked, what he saw made him unsettled. At the end of the hall was a dead guard, Cloud went up and inspected him, his entrails all over the floor, a clean slash through the mans stomach.

"Whats happened?" he rushed back into the room, roughly shaking Tifa up.

"Tifa. Wake up!"  
>"Whats wrong?" She looked around and saw the cell door too, she got right out of bed and looked confused.<p>

"Somethings wrong, look outside." She ran out and he followed. Her having the same face Cloud had seeing the dead guard.

"I wonder what happened." Cloud bent over and searched through his pockets.

"He should have a key on him." After a few seconds he found the security key for the cells.

"Come on Tifa, get Aeris, I'll help the others." Tifa ran up to the first door and used the card first, she tossed it to Cloud who ran into the third cell, housing to sleeping captives.

"Barret, Red...come with me, something happened." Barret woke up looking dazed.

"How'd you get in? Why's the door open?" Both ran out to see what was going on, both ran and inspected the bodyguard, shocked at the state he was in. Barret the only one to acurratly sum up the situation.

"The hells goin on?"  
>"No human could have done this...I'll go ahead" The canine ran ahead. "I'll clean up back here, so you guys go ahead, and don't get caught by Shinra!" Cloud nodded and went in to see Tifa with a bewildered Aeris.<p>

"Come on, lets follow Red!" Both followed Cloud, Barret had found a utility closet at the opposite side of the hall, the guards key opened it and inside was everyone's weapons. While preparing Red had come up, Cloud noted his calm demeanor was now replaced with one of worry.

"Are there guards?" Red shook his head. "Worse, experiments have escaped, but that's not whats bad."  
>"Whats wrong?"<br>"I found Nathan." Everyone froze hearing that, seeing the state the floor was in right now they could only imagine.

"Is he alright?" Tifa looked frantic.

"I don't know."  
>"How don't you know." He lowered his head.<p>

"He was mumbling...and called me little brother." Everyone was confused now.

"Go protect him, we'll catch up." He nodded and ran off. The group finally got the rest of their supply and started running off. Cloud was very nervous though. Nanaki said that whoever killed the guard wasn't human, but his experience told him it was a blade that killed the guard. Thin and long...like a katana. Cloud hoped whatever happened didn't involve Nathan. The group ran down the hallway, passing the body's of people with similar slashes, only serving to put the group into more duress. When the turned they all stood and looked at the scene. A torn metal container, and a very bloody comrade. Barret, Tifa, and Aeris ran to look at Nathan while Cloud looked at the container, missing a very dangerous being.

"Cloud somethings wrong with him." Cloud walked over and looked at Nathan. His sword blood free. Good, he didn't do anything. However the right side of his face had smears all over it, which dripped and covered almost half of his shirt. The biggest thing he noticed though were his eyes. No longer did the hazel pupils have such youth or when Cloud first met him the shifting, as is constantly expecting something. They were now dull brown, almost glazed over as if he were just a shell.

"Nathan..are you okay." He put a hand on his shoulder, it enlicited a reaction, but not the one he was expecting.

"...Jim?...Jim its been so long! Bro you finally got leave from the navy?" Cloud was taken back. Nathan wasn't fully in his right mind, but to hear this...

"Nathan had siblings?" Tifa asked, also confused on how Nathan was acting. "He didn't talk about anyone but his parents...maybe Nate does have brothers." Barret mused. It could be possible...but to have someone in the Shinra navy?

"I finally beat it Jim...100%...I beat Final Fantasy 7...I guess that makes me the better gamer...I guess I am a cyber nerd..ha...?" He had a smile on his face, but it was empty, nothing about it was meant for Cloud, but he was even more confused, Final Fantasy 7? He had never heard of such a game.

"Cloud take a look." He looked over and Barret had a couple objects in his hands. One was a very slim looking PHS the other was something he had never scene before.

"Is that what Marlene was talking about?" Tifa took the rectangular piece of technology and fiddled with it, Cloud looked at the PHS and looked at the front, it was an unknown model, he had never heard of a brand name called...Verison...He opened it and looked at the wall paper, he was amazed. Inside was the picture of two men. One was significantly other than the older, he was dark, wearing farm clothing from the looks of it, the next person was what surprised Cloud the most. It was a man, around twenty three or twenty five, he was a lighter dark skin than the other male, but what threw Cloud back was that the man had very almost identical facial features to Nathan...yet Nathan was obviously lighter.

"I'm guessing that's his father and brother." Cloud showed the picture to everyone else and they all were confused as well. "He would he be this light?" Barret asked. Cloud closed the PHS, it was odd but it didn't matter, he put it back in Nathans pocket. He looked at Tifa who was playing with the other device.

"This is incredible!" Tifa showed the rest of the group and they were almost baffled. The device was operated by touch the screen, something they hadn't heard off on such a small device.

"How does that work?" Aeris said, taking and studying the object. "Like any other electronic, but it has so much...I saw files for music, videos, a lot of stuff." Tifa was excited, Cloud was amused. "But where did he get it?" Barret asked, everyone was looking at Nathan, half expecting him to come out of his daze and explain the scene before him.

"He said something about being a cyber nerd...you think Nathan...might be really smart?" Cloud thought the question over. Though Nathan didn't have more than above average strength, he somehow always made the right decisions in combat. He knew what to do in the Shinra building to spy and even get a few items. It would actually be possible the jokes were a ruse...and that Nathan was actually a very calculative kid.

"That might be it, but we have important things to worry about." Cloud looked over at the container again. Slipping the other device back in Nathans pocket, they could talk about it at a better time.

"Jenova specimen...Looks like it went to the upper floor using the elevator for specimens." Red spoke up.

"Okay we're going."  
>"What about Nathan."<br>"Let me handle that." Barret took his hand and slapped Nathan across the face, hard enough he actually hit the ground.

* * *

><p>"God damn it!" I felt the sting. "What the hell..."<p>

I looked up and saw everyone with concerned looks towards me. "Nathan your perfectly fine." Tifa lifted me up and hugged me I was taken back by the sudden gesture. "Guys its okay, I'm fine."  
>"Why are you here?" Aeris asked.<p>

"I came to rescue you guys...but I came at a bad time." Everyone seemed baffled at that.

"Nate what happened to you? You were acting really weird" I looked at everyone's worried face, It was then I remembered the encounter.

"Jenova got out."  
>"But how Nathan?" Cloud asked, I shook my head. I didn't want to reveal Sephiroth yet.<p>

"We need to follow this trail, I don't believe what I saw, but I have to make sure."  
>"Make sure what?"<br>"That it was really** him** who took it." Everyone looked at me. I waved it off and went to the specimen elevator with Nanaki. Outside we found another body and the trail lead out of the room. The trail led up to the 69th floor which had a damaged enough door we could walk through. In the office we found more dead body's. We went up looking at the office, all holding our weapons, ready for anything. We inspected it and found another dead body.

The president, impaled by Masamune.

"He's dead. The leader of Shinra Inc. is dead..." Barret looked in disbeleif, Tifa went up to inspect the sword and had shocked expression.

"Than this must be...?" She and Cloud looked at me.

"Its general Sephiroth..." I looked at the blade, knowing full well it was the same from earlier.

"Sephiroth is alive!" She was shocked.

"Looks like it, only Sephiroth can use that sword." He was clutching his uniform, the anger on his face was very present.

"Who cares who did it? This is the end of Shinra now." Aeris looked and saw a man hiding behind a pillar, when he popped out to see who it was everyone spotted him, he tried to make a break for it, but both Barret and Cloud were too fast.

"P,p,p, Please! Don't kill me!" It was Palmer. "What happened?"  
>"Se- Sephiroth. Sephiroth came!"<br>"Did you see him? Did you see Sephiroth?"  
>"Yeah, I saw him. I saw him with my own eyes!" Cloud looked at me, as if for confirmation. I nodded, the man was telling the truth.<p>

"He was saying something about not letting us have the Promised Land."  
>"Then what? Does that mean the promised land exists and Sephiroth is here to save it from Shinra?"<br>"So he's a good guy right."  
>"Save the Promised land? Good guy? No way!" Cloud snapped. "Its not that simple, I know him. Sephiroths mission is completely different.!"<p>

In his confusion Palmer wiggled free of both men's grasps and ran off, in the distance everyone heard a loud noise, looking out we saw the Shinra company helicopter. "Rufus! Shit I forgot about him!"  
>"Who's that?"<br>"Vice president Rufus, the presidents son." Everyone stared at the helicopter dropping someone, everyone ran to the balcony. Getting outside we saw a blond man in a white suit talking to Palmer.

"So...Sephiroth was actually here...By the way." Palmer ran off while Rufus took a look at all of us.

"Who are you guys?"  
>"I'm Cloud former SOLDIER First Class." Rufus looked amused at the introduction.<p>

"I'm from AVALANCHE!"  
>"Same here!"<br>"Likewise." I pointed my thumb at myself.

"A flower girl from the slums"  
>"a research specimen." Rufus smiled again.<p>

"What a crew." He straightened his hair and looked back at us. "Well I'm Rufus. The President of Shinra Inc."

"Your only president cuz your old man died!"  
>"That's right, I'll let you hear my new appointment speech." He started to approach the group, myself excluded from everyone else had prepped their weapons.<p>

"...Old man tried to control the world with money. It seems to have been working." He went over towards Aeris direction.

"The population though Shinra would protect them." Aeris looked disdainfully at him, he shrugged and walked up towards me and Barret.

"Work at Shinra, get your pay, if terrorist attack the Shinra army will help you." He looked between me and Barret, his eye sight lingering on my bloody shirt and hands at ease.

"It looks perfect on the outside." He held out a finger.

" But, I do things differently...I'll control the world with fear. It takes to much to do it like my old man." He started walking back to his original position.

"A little fear will control the minds of the common people. No need to waste money on them." You know I took a debate class and I have to say, Rufus would do pretty well. He really shows his ruthlessness.

"He likes to make speeches, just like his father." Tifa sounded amused. I smile when Cloud had turned to Barret.

"Get outta this building with Aeris."  
>"What?"<br>"I'll explain later! Barret! This is a real crisis for the plane."  
>"he hells that supposed to mean?"<br>"I'll tell you later! Just take my word for now! I'll go after I take car of him!" Barret looked down for a second.

"Alright Cloud." He and the rest of the group ran off, I stayed put. "Nathan what are you doing?" Tifa stopped.

"Clouds probably gunna get ganged up on, he'll need a little support." I placed my hand on Fusion.

"Aeris will be safe with you guys, I have faith in ya." She stared before Cloud gave her a nod. She ran off, and we were left alone with the new Shinra Inc. President. "Why do you want to fight me?"  
>"You seek the Promised land and Sephiroth."<br>"hm, exactly." He walked over to the emptier side of the balcony and turned to us. "Mm. Did you know Sephiroth was an Ancient?"  
>"A lot has happened...I can't allow you or Sephiroth to get the Promised land!" He readied his buster sword. "Sigh, and what about you?"<br>"I'm going to support my friend, but I must admit your speech as good, A for presentation, but your back was to the audience so That's a C on body language." He snickered at my joke.

"People are easy to manipulate, after all. Fear is one of the best motivators."  
>"Fear is only as deep as the mind allows." The helicopter came over head and Rufus' canine thing came out. He reached unto his coat and pulled out a shotgun, I readied my blade.<p>

" A pity, we could have been friends."

* * *

><p>Everyone ran down the out the top office, Aeris slowed down.<p>

"Cloud...Nathan. I just thought of something." If everyone left who would be able to help them out, how would they get away? Tifa, sensing her confusion walked up. "I'll wait for them, everyone, get to the elevator!" Everyone nodded, Tifa stayed put while everyone else went inside the elevator. Aeris the entire time looking at the ground

"Hey." She looked at Barret.

"As long as all three of them are together they can get out." She nodded, and Nathan got away before...so maybe he could help if they got caught.

"Watch out!" Red barked, Barret and Aeris were confused until they saw the elevator next to them descended to equal level, with heavy military machine.

"We just can't get a break." Barret started firing his gun.

Red started casting fire since he and Aeris couldn't fight from that distance. Doing the same, she cast a bolt spell on the machine, being the one out of the three to deal the most damage. "Keep it up Aeris!" Barret kept firing while Red casted again, causing the machine to lose a chunk of armor. The machine had started to aim its cannons at the group and before they knew it launch three grenades onto the platform.

Aeris closed her eyes as the explosion took place. She noticed she only felt a few bits of shrapnel, Barret was in front of her. Aeris was shocked, with everyone trying to protect her, she felt so bad she could only help a little. She felt a surge of power, she started casting and everyone in the group felt the power of healing wind. Barret's wounds healed well along with Reds. Aeris casted another bolt, jolting the machine and Barret pummeling it with bullets.

While both were readying another volley they saw Red run to the back of the platform, with a burst of speed he jumped to the other elevator and sank his teeth into the machine, what amazed both was he tore the chunk out and jumped back. Missing one of its armor plates Barret started shooting the weak spot. Without any time to respond the machine completely stopped. Having been to badly damaged to work anymore.

"Finally we're done!"

"Not quite." Barret looked at Red who was looking up.

He heard some wring and saw the new machine take the last ones place.

"We still have a long way to go too." Red taking his previous battle position.

"We can beat this no problem!"

"I hope everyone else is okay..." Aeris wondered aloud.

* * *

><p>Despite how easy the game made it, Rufus' boss battle was a severe pain in the ass. I, being the weaker than Cloud, opted to take out Dark Nation, only to realize that one, the modified canine's tentacle was sharpened and almost as bad as a knife. And two, Rufus didn't appreciate his barrier castor be targeted. He was extremely versatile with his shotgun, keeping Cloud at bay by making him use his Buster swords as a shield and just taking a blind shot in my direction, but he was skilled enough I would always have to back off from the.<p>

"This is getting us no where!" Cloud said keeping his sword flat in front of him.

"Cloud if a guy wants to fight don't underestimate just because he looks like a prep." Me remembering my defeat by Reno just a day earlier. I heard Rufus laughing over to my left, he had been doing this when were would try to plan out loud.

"I would think a SOLDIER First Class could take on a prep." He started blasting again in both our directions, Cloud able to block while I got grazed again, its odd. Every time he shoots towards me the bullets never hit. My thought was cut off by the five foot dog coming to take a chunk out of my arm, only to be met with my empty fist since I couldn't pull my sword for shit will Rufus shooting at me.

"Cloud I could use some help here."  
>"I'm busy myself!" He lifted his blade and went for a slash, Rufus sidestepped and aimed a shot at Clouds legs, only for the bullets to be met with steel and him shoved back. I look over and Dark Nation trys to get another bite on me but I block with my sword and step back, the canine walking around waiting for another opportunity. With both Its harder than I thought it would be...<p>

"Cloud, get over here and shield me."  
>"And what are you going to do?"<br>"I need to prepare, just keep the bullets away!" Cloud came up and held the sword flat again, Rufus shooting us from the distance and Dark Nation about to strike. "Hurry up!"  
>"I need to concentrate!" I focused my fire materia on my last fire glove. Cloud looking back and seeing what I was doing got shot at again and knocked off balance, he tilted off leaving me wide open with a smiling Rufus and a mutant dog about to get me.<p>

"Looks like your friend is done for SOLDIER." Dark Nation started to charge, aiming its jaws right at my throat. I hadn't made the full fire on my fist so I dove to the side, the bite no hitting my left pocket and ripping most of the side of my pants.

"Nathan!"

Cloud ran up and slashed at the dog, before it could spit out what cloth it had it jumped back towards Rufus and readied to pounce me again. Cloud to preoccupied with Rufus shooting again. I focused harder and finally got the flame completely around my fist. Dark Nation made a charge at me. I couldn't rear back my fist fast enough so I went with the next best thing. When it was close enough I ducked a little more and aimed for the dogs jaw. Right when it was over me I launched upwards, spiraling while lifting the dogs now chard head into the air, I couldn't contain my excitement.

"Shoryuken!" I finished landing on my feet awkwardly, I jumped higher than I though I could, the dogs now limp body laying a few feet away. I quickly took of my glove and showed Rufus my victory smile.

"Looks like the battles in our favor." I threw the glove at him, only for him to grab it in the air and smile.

"You both were quiet entertaining...But that's all for today."

The helicopter came close making me and Cloud cringe while Rufus reached up and grabbed the bar.

"Thank you for the gifts by the way." I looked up at him confused, only to see something in his now shotgun-less hand. My phone and Ipod, along with my glove and cloth from when Dark Nation tore my pants.

"No!"

I ran up to late, the copter flew away to quick, leaving me and Cloud in silence, the propellers in the distance. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked at a stern Cloud. "Come on, we need to get out before the entire army shows up!" I reluctantly nodded and ran with him through the office, he may have my stuff but that doesn't mean anything bad...I hope.

We eventually got to Tifa who had the most relieved expression on her face I had ever seen. "Thank the Planet that you two are alive!...Wheres Rufus?"

"We couldn't finish him, looks like this is gunna get complicated." We started running down the stairs, Tifa mentioned Aeris taking the other elevator and the other not working for some reason. I worried that the mech boss got them but Cloud didn't cast bolt during Rufus' battle so I thought they were alright. We got to the 60th floor and decided to take the back elevator down the rest of the way.

"Cloud how are we going to get away?"  
>"...I have an idea, Tifa take one of the display vehicles I'll meet you down stairs." Cloud pressed another button and we stopped there when Cloud exited. He nodded to us and walked off, making us take the rest of the way down.<p>

"What does he have in mined?"  
>"I think something about speed." I smiled, the door opened and we booked out, going down stairs seeing the rest of the team stuck in the lobby.<p>

"Barret!" He looked up.

"Everyone over here!"  
>"Huh? Whats up? Wheres Cloud?"<br>"We''ll talk later just hurry up!"

I waved my hand over and everybody started running. We found the green truck while Cloud came up on a motorcycle. Everyone entered with Aeris in shotgun, Tifa driving, and Red, Barret, and me cramming the trunk. We started following Cloud who drove up some stairs and was facing a window, he looked back and Tifa gave him a thumbs up, both vehicles speed up and smashed through the glass and landing with resounding thuds on the highway. Each vehicle increasing speed. "Holy shit we made it!" Barret yelled. Cloud came up next to the passenger side.

"Don't get cocky, they'll send someone to get us soon enough." And low I heard the telltale sounds of more motor cycles coming up in the distance.

"Cloud, next time you know somethings supposed to happen, don't say anything. Its safer."

The men were catching up really fast, Cloud pulled out his sword and started to slow down. The first motorcycle enemy trying to speed past him, only to get his front tire torn by Clouds sword and falling onto the speeding pavement. Another came up and Cloud did the same.

"You think he's gunna be alright?" Tifa yelled.

"Barret seriously help out!" I yelled.

"Fine, Cloud get out the way!" Cloud speed to the other side of the highway while three troopers came up. Barret aimed his gun and just sprayed the ground, hitting two of the men with one of the bikes knocking the third down.

"Hell yeah!" Barret lowered his gun, reloading.

"There's more!" I looked over and saw about six bikers come up, some with noticeable color changes. Cloud when straight for an orange, taking him down only to see four more guys speed by towards us and the fifth try to hit him with a tonfa.

"Shit I'm not done reloading!"  
>"Aeris give me your lightning materia!" She held out her hand from the window and I placed the orb into my bangle. I climbed to the top of the truck, holding the large light on top for support with my left hand.<p>

"Nathan what the hell are you doing?" Barret yelled looking up.

"If were infamous now its about time to act the part." One of the red cycles came up about to charge the truck, I focused and had a small ball of electricity in my the power surge.

"Bolt!" I held it up and zapped the guy of his bike, knocking back one other red and the last being hit by a now caught up Cloud. I saw in the distance more cycles and I pointed, Cloud looked back and slowed down, the group didn't stand a chance with Cloud, Barret, and myself knocking them down. The success was short lived when behind us I saw something that made my jaw drop. Motorball, speeding up with its spiked tracks and weapons aimed right for us.

"Holy shit! Tifa speed up!" I yelled.

"I'm pushing it already!"  
>"How the hell are we supposed to out run that!" Barret pointed. I looked at Cloud who had a worried expression, I looked ahead and saw that the unfinished highway's end was coming up.<p>

"Fuck! We need to slow it down! If it rams us we're done for!" I prepped another bolt and zapped the machine, only making it grind its gears while it was chasing. "Nathan!" I looked and saw Cloud speed over.

"Keep casting, Barret start firing at its treads, and Red. When I give the signal, drop an Ice spell." He stayed close to the truck while we were following through on his plan.

Soon enough we saw the end of the highway coming so I climbed back down and braced at just the right moment when the breaks came in. Cloud skirted right next to us a just seconds afterwords.

"Now!"

Nanaki cast ice, but not at the machine, he had cast at the ground near one of the treads. I looked and the thing seemed stupid enough to just charge the frozen chunk. In the end because of all the preemptive damage we did to the machine, the think rammed the ice and lost its entire right left tread.

"Everyone strike now!" We all started to whale on the machine, Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Nanaki going for physical while one ether later, Me and Aeris started casting. The machine never stood a chance, it only got a few fire attacks onto the group before our combine assault caused the giant machine to finally break down and explode. Everyone was tired, especially myself. Even after an ether I had some spotty vision and a small head ache. Everyone stood up and looked out passed the broken road.

"Well...what do we do now?" Barret asked, Cloud passed him by and stared out into the now rising sun.

"Sephiroth is alive. I...I have to settle the score."  
>"And that'll save the planet?"<br>"...Seems like it" Barret nodded. "Alright then I'm going to."  
>"I'll go too, there are some things I want to find out." Aeris spoke up.<p>

"About the Ancients?" She nodded "Many things..."

"I guess that's good by Midgar." Tifa spoke up, stretching from the previous battle. Everyone seemed to have a silent agreement. Nobody spoke for a few minutes, we just stood there...Looking at the sun.

"Nathan...what are you going to do." I looked and saw Aeris.

"I guess...I have to protect a friend." She looked confused. "With all this going on...I'm concerned what people I have will be endanger. I need to protect someone at least." She looked at me before she looked back at the sun.

Finally we escaped...but now it gets even harder from here.

I only hope I can protect Aeris...and maybe everyone else too...


	8. Chapter 8

Ch 8 A/N with some requests I will now be making a sign when I transition to third person, I usually separated perceptions by a line but hey what can ya do? That's all really...so how your guys life? Oh yeah and sorry about the messed up weekend upload, i had to many assignment that i had to write this over the weekend.

* * *

><p>After the sunset sunset scene, and much to my dismay, we had to climb down the crane next to the road. And after much force from everyone I finally flopped down onto solid ground. Dusting myself off I saw the sector seven gate in the distance.<p>

"So...what now?"  
>"We can either go now or we can rest here for a bit." Cloud said.<p>

"I vote now while I still have the adrenaline to make the trip." I said. I'm about a few hours away from the biggest crash in my life.

"Hold up, we need a group leader for our journey. Course only me could be leader." I smiled, he was really setting himself up for major failure.

"You think so.." Tifa was smiling too.

"It would have to be Cloud." Aeris immediately burst Barret's bubble.

"Defiantly Cloud." Tifa added.

"I'm with Cloud too." I laughed since he had the most depressed face I had ever scene on him. It quickly turned to irritation though.

"Shit...Alright, go northeast to a town called Kalm, if something happens we'll meet up there. 'sides, we cant have six people strolling down the fields, its to dangerous, split us into two groups." Cloud looked around the group for a minute.

"Aeris...and Barret. Everyone else go forward while we stay for a short time."  
>"Alright, we''ll head out now." Tifa, Red, and my grouped up. We waved and started walking.<p>

"Do you think its a good idea that we split up?" She asked out loud after around half an hour of walking.

"We're still too close to Midgar, a few people is harder to spot that a large group, after Kalm I say we can stay together."  
>"Wouldn't we still stick out?" Nanaki mentioned.<p>

"They can't send the entire army after us, and a helicopter would take to much time to comb through the fields." I tried to sound smart. I wasn't entirely sure of what I was saying, but in the game Rufus didn't have that big an interest in the group until we started to follow Sephiroth past the caverns.

"Interesting thought...Have you been here before" Red said, I saw out of my peripherals he was eyeballing me.

"I had to pass Kalm to get to Midgar, nice town...very blue." We kept walking, I felt my fatigue start to get me, my eyes started to ache and my legs had a small burning feeling, we kept walking though, only a small structure in the distance kept my attitude up.

"Nathan...are you okay?" Tifa stopped and turned. An expression of worry on her face.

"I'm fine, I can make it to the town. Then I can take a nap and eat."  
>"Not that I mean..." I caught on to her tone.<p>

"I know, its not something I can just put behind me you know. But there are things bigger than me, so I'm okay. Don't worry." True. Sephiroths confrontation and Jenovas words were etched into my mind. I knew I should have died there, and yet Jenova had shown mercy...and that's what scared me the most.

"As long as you say your okay." We started traveling again. Only to hear large mechanical noises over the next hill.

"Get down." Tifa ducked first and started to crouch walk to see over the hill, me ducking with Nanaki just staying in his normal position, ready for a fight.

"Its only one sweeper, but its not going away, maybe we could sneak around" Considering random encounter physics I highly doubt that.

"Its probably programed to charge anything deemed hostel, and considering the party we had at their headquarters, they are probably investigating travelers too."  
>"So we can't avoid it." Red got closer to the top.<p>

"We can use the element of surprise then." Tifa moved to the top.

"Use Bolt, then attack as fast as you can." I nodded, already charging my spell. "Okay in three...two...one...go!" We all jumped out. I casted, making the machine sputter for a second, Tifa went up and to my surprise had been able to punch one of the torso sections and cracking it. Nanaki came up and had ripped one of the main machine guns of its arms. We all jumped back when it started spraying bullets with its left over gun.

"Good, we actually have a chance." Tifa said out loud, I already felt something bad was going to happen. Suddenly there was a short spray of bullets from behind us. Each of us getting a few scratches rolling out the way. Another custom sweeper appeared.

"Why now!"  
>"Maybe we should keep comments about our success to ourselves cuz from what I've seen Tifa the Planet really hates it when something good comes our way." I casted a bolt at the weaker sweeper.<p>

"Less talk, we need to get rid of them before MP's show up." Nanaki barked. Tifa went back to the weak sweeper while Nanaki and me kept casting at the stronger behind us. Its patterns were easy since we kept a good distance away. It mostly tried to shoot at us, but the aiming functions on those machines are terrible. Tifa was making decent work on the other sweeper. The sweeper we had tried to charge but the distance allowed us to jump and keep attacking, it started to show ware and glitches in its operations over time. However our sweeper decided to stop. Only to open up some compartment on its back. I immediately remembered what it was.

"Its gunna use Matra magic! Move!" The missiles launched and had spread across most of the field, Nanaki gout out of the blast area, Tifa was behind the now functionless old sweeper, and me being near the blast radius and getting hit by heat and shrapnel shards.

"Nathan are you okay!"  
>"I'm fine...just scratches." I lied, I felt a very large chip in my shoulder. I also felt a foreign sensation in my bangle, looking I saw my enemy skill materia glowing. I smiled.<p>

"How about a taste of your own medicine!" I held out my hand and concentrated, the result was different from elemental spells. I felt the pressure from the missiles fire from the materia and impact on the sweeper. The resulting explosions finally finished off the machine. Tifa and Nan came up.

"Nathan that was good thinking!" She cheered. She pat me on my bad shoulder and I winced.

"Huh..Nathan your hurt! Red help him out." Tifa took the chip out of my shoulder and Nanaki healed me up.

"Okay, we should probably go."  
>"Hold on." They both looked at me wandering over to one of the sweepers.<p>

"Nathan what are you doing?"  
>"I know a little on how these machines work, and if I am correct..." I looked at the large cartridge of a machine gun. The badly damaged outside showing me a bent side plate. Using Fusion I pried it open and found what I wanted inside. I pulled out the Atomic Scissors and walked back to a baffled Tifa.<p>

"How did you know that was in there..what would we even use it for?"  
>"Basic weapons design, Sweepers have guns yes, but they eventually run out of bullets, its a secondary fighting weapon, plus I know the junction is almost exactly the same as Barret's gun attachments." I said . Both looked at me incredulously before they decided to start walking. I took the time to grab the second scissors from the other one before I caught back up. We kept eyes on the horizon through the rest of the walk though, making sure there weren't anymore surprises. After another thirty minutes or so we finally arrived outside Kalm. It was much bigger than I thought it was, having more farms on the outside of the town square which is where the game made its focus. And just like the game it had that abnormal amount of blue a town should have.<p>

"You were right calling it blue." Red noted.

"Lets check into the inn." Tifa went inside followed by me and Red.

"Welcome!" Said a very enthusiastic inn keeper. "Hello, we'd like a room with five beds."

"Sorry, the most I have is the top floor with three." She looked depressed.

"Tifa not all of us need a bed, just get that room and we can wait for everyone else." Tifa paid the man and we went to the top of the building, inside the highest floor was the three beds and some furniture spread out.

"We just need to wait for everyone else now." She decided to sit on one of the beds while Nanaki ran to the nearest wall and just laid down. I set down one of the Atomic Scissors near the entrance and started down the stairs.

"Where are you going?" I looked and saw the dogs one good eye staring at me from across the room.

"I'm going to sell this, we need money for traveling and this will go for a decent price."  
>"Just be careful, Shinra might be around." Tifa added.<p>

"Don't worry so much, we're fine, Shinra probably has other problems to worry about too."

* * *

><p><strong>ATE<strong>

Tseng was riding the elevator to the top floor, a large folder filled with different files in his hand. The company was short handed since the "incident" as it was refereed to. Luckily there wasn't much fallout with the help of a few placed explosives and false witness accounts. AVALANCHE was now Midgar's biggest enemy, both publicly and privately. Allowing the new president to focus on other matters. The bell dinged and he started walking through the office , now filled with a couple new secretary's, and up the stairs. Seeing in the the seat Rufus who seemed to be...Listening to music? He shook his head, Rufus was smart, almost a prodigy much like Reeve. He could relax and work when he wished.

"Tseng, it is good to see you again."  
>"Mr. President. Its nice to see you in good spirits, considering the circumstances." Rufus laughed.<p>

"I never exactly had a strong bond with my father, it doesn't matter now though." He waved his hand.

"Tell me, did you get the information that I wanted?"  
>"Yes." Tseng handed Rufus the folder, the blond had started to separate the different files based on the files name.<p>

"This is what you have for the entire group?"  
>"Yes sir...Its seems AVALANCHE has more ties to Shinra than we expected." Rufus opened up one of the files, the picture out front being that of a large dark male. "Barret Wallace. Originally from Corel, however due to a reactor explosion and Scarlet saying a rebel faction was in the town, he lost his hand and had his home destroyed. He is the leader of AVALANCHE." Rufus opened another folder, this time being a girl with dark long hair.<p>

"Tifa Lockhart, born in Nibelheim along with one of the other members, Cloud Strife. She was a victim of Sephiroths break down which had destroyed the whole town. Somehow she was able to escape and come here to Midgar." Rufus looked at a few other folders.

"I see there is some missing information on a few of the members."  
>"Yes sir, a couple of them were involved in the science department, accessing the information is hard when you don't have certain clearance, and Hojo is the only one who has the passwords."<br>"And where is he?"  
>"Currently recovering from an attack from the specimen you see in one of the folders."<br>"When he is done tell him that I want access to the science departments files." The wutaian nodded.

"I also see we only have five files here, yet I clearly remember the group having six."  
>"Yes, that was something I wished to mention, the one Reno says his name was Nathan. He was a new member that was away when we sent Corneo to find out where the group hides out. He doesn't have any connection to Shinra from what we know, and Reno says he came from Medeel." Tseng took the one paper he had in his hand and gave it to Rufus.<p>

"Since we can't investigate the island now this is all we have on him at the moment." The president looked at the paper and almost scoffed.

"This is an employment application..."  
>"Yes, I had found that he had visited the building twice from what one of the receptionist from the front desk said." Tseng said smoothly.<p>

"...Interesting...Tseng did you see what departments he applied for?" Tseng raised an eyebrow.

" Is there something that you noticed?"  
>"He had applied to Urban Development and Weapons manufacturing." Tseng noticed the small smile on the presidents face. He knew something.<p>

"Does this have anything to do with the fight you had with him as well as Strife?"  
>"Partially...tell me Tseng, what do you make of this?" Rufus had held out a PHS. But on closer inspection he noticed massive differences between this model an the one he had now. He took it and opened the phone. Its was sleeker, a wider array of tools inside the phone, and could flip sideways to create a full keyboard to text.<p>

"Who ever made this is smart, its better than the model we Turks use, and they're the best on the market." The president nodded his head.

"May I ask where you got this from sir?"  
>"Its from this Nathan River." His eyes widened a little. The young adult had a phone model that surpassed Turks. A matter worth investigating.<p>

"...Sir, could I take this to Tuesti. I want to verify that there is no other version of this out."  
>"Go ahead, I was going to ask you to do the same thing. Oh and take this too." The president pulled out his head phones and handed Tseng another device, only this time it had a complete glass screen.<p>

"I'm sure Reeve will be pleasantly surprised. Bring it back though, I was enjoying something." Tseng took the other device and left. Going back through the offices and to the elevator again. Pushing a button for one of the forty levels. Taking the time to look at the new device. It was slightly bigger than the phone, but not as bulky. He pressed the power button and was surprised to see the screen light up. Looking it said to slide the bar to unlock, but there wasn't any button on the sides or front that he could see. Before he could investigate further the elevator dinged and he briskly walked out. Going past a few hallways and offices he arrived at the main door.

"Mr. Tuesti, I'm here to give you something from the president."  
>"Tseng! Come in." He walked in. Seeing the well organized office of Urban Developments executive, with the man himself tinkering with what looked like...a cat?It seems many of Shinra executives have hobby's.<p>

"Please take a seat, I'm just working on a side project." Tseng nodded and sat down in front of Reeve who had place the cat away.

"So what brings the Turks to my office?"  
>"The president would like you to examine a few choice items he had taken from a member of AVALANCHE. Considering you have the best knowledge on machines outside of military use."<br>"Well lets see it then." Tseng handed Reeve both items, Reeve immediately took notice to the PHS first. Taking it he examined the main screen and started going around the menus. He looked happy.

"Tseng you said this was from an AVALANCHE member?"  
>"Yes, its a model the president and myself are unfamiliar with. We hoped you could shed some light on this." The UD executive chuckled. "This model doesn't exist." Tseng made a questioning glance. "Are you sure?"<p>

"Yes." He reached into his drawer and pulled out a small tool set and started to take off the back and examine the contents.

"The battery is roughly the same size, however the phone seems to have a battery that lasts a few days longer than even the best of models." He took apart some more of the device and pulled out "The phone has a different signal wavelength. It can call from rapidly moving vehicles without trouble, unlike our PHS. It also has a built in video camera." Tseng was taken back by that.

"Tseng, I should tell you this phone is easily five years ahead of our time, are you sure the president got this from a member of AVALANCHE?" Reeve didn't hide his growing curiosity.

"Yes, a Nathan River...It would make sense on some of the information we had on him though."  
>"What do you mean?"<br>"The only document that connected him to Shinra was an employment application he had turned in at an unknown date. He had signed up to be in UD and weapons development."  
>"And now he is a part of an Eco-terrorist group going against the company he applied to? to bad, i would have liked to meet the man." That was what Tseng was thinking, for someone to have this kind of technology and then go against Shinra.<p>

"And this other device." Reeve held up the glass screen now with multiple options on it.

"Its a portable music player, however it is touch screen." He started choosing options by pressing his finger on the screen. Now Tseng was intrigued.

"I haven't heard of that product either."  
>"Tseng that AVALANCHE member had a music player that had all of his songs stored digitally onto a device. This is easily ten if not fifteen years ahead of the product line." Tseng contemplated over the information.<p>

"Reeve, I want you to examine these further, but be sure to be able to put the music player back together."  
>"Any reason why the music player?"<br>"The president seems to have taken a liking to the device." Reeve laughed. Tseng got up and started to exit the office.

"What are you going to do about this AVALANCHE member?"  
>"We will need to keep a close eye on the entire team. Having a SOLDIER, Cetra, and a kid with technical knowledge that almost matches yours. The president will have to have a way to keep tabs on them,"<p>

* * *

><p>(1stpv)<p>

"I can go 700 gil, no more."  
>"Okay seriously this is in good condition. You know how hard it is to find one of these out there?" The weapons shop owner was giving me a hard time. I was trying to sell the extra weapon, but I tried to get 1000 instead of the 700 the game gave.<p>

"Its not a common weapon, but 1000 is to much."  
>"And 700 is to low!"<br>"Tell you what, I'll make it 1150 if you throw in that sword of yours." I saw the mischievous glint in his eye. The guy was going to try to swindle me no matter what I did. "You know I could just threaten you."  
>"And what good will that do you?"<br>"Well no ones around, and I have my sword in my hand, no matter how fast you draw a gun I can get your neck...or your stomach...or your arm, I'm still debating." I narrowed my eyes and smiled at the guy. His glint now replaced with fear.

"y y You can't do that! You'll be caught by someone!"  
>"Not if I make it so you can't scream." I leaned on the counter, seeing the mans hands fidget to under the counter. "Did you know an expert swordsman can draw his sword faster than a bullet can be shot...few do." He raised his hands above the counter, then he sighed.<p>

"I can do 950 gil, but that's my final offer."

"Deal." I was handed a small stack of bills and a few coins before I left. I wandered over to another shop and went inside, I found inside a multitude of colors and fabrics.

"Hello welcome!" I was immediately greeted by a very peppy clerk. "How can I help you."  
>"ummm...Hi. I need some new clothes, mine are a little...gritty." That was an understatement. I had been in the same pair of clothing for the last four days or so and I knew I must have had a very unpleasant smell. "Yes I can see...hmmm...how about this?" He had picked a cotton long sleeved plaid shirt.<p>

"Do you have anything more from the city, preferably white black or blue?" He thought for a moment before going into the back of the store. He came back with an ocean shirt and a pair of black baggy pants with red lines running down the sides of the legs.

"Lucky for you we have what I believe is your size, but the shirt might hug on you."  
>"I'll take it."<br>"that will be 150 gil then." I paid and left the shop, I was hungry but I knew by now everyone must have arrived so I went back to the inn. I waved to the owner and went up the steps to the top floor.

"Nathan, your late!" I heard Barret's booming voice as I came up.

"I was in town, I had stuff to do." Looking I saw everyone was inside the room. Cloud standing in the middle, Aeris on one of the beds, and Barret off to the side with his new weapon. With Tifa and Red in relatively unmoved places.

"Guess everyone's here now." Said Aeris.

"So lets hear your story, you know, bout the one with Sephiroth and the crisis facing the planet." Cloud took a breath. I leaned back onto the wall by the stairs, This was going to take a while.

He told us his story, about how he wanted to be like Sephiroth, and how that when he reached First Class he worked with Sephiroth and eventually became his friend. He told us how five years ago they were sent on a mission to investigate an old reactor in Nibelheim. How the first fight they had with a dragon got everyone's attention.

"He got rid of it that easily?" Tifa asked.

"Sephiroths strength is unreal. He is far stronger in reality than any story you might have heard about him."  
>"So where do you come in?"<br>"Me? I was mesmerized by the way he fought." Aeris looked a little disappointed that Cloud didn't do anything during the battle. I looked over and saw Tifa shift uncomfortably, knowing the story was about to be skewed. He talked about how he entered Nibelheim and that Sephiroth had told Cloud that all he knew about his parents were that his mother was named Jenova. When the entered the village they...

"Yo hold up." Everyone looked at Barret.

"Isn't the name of Sephiroths mother...yeah it was that damn headless spook livin in Shinra headquarters!" Everyone sweat dropped at Barret's obvious outburst. "That's right." Cloud said, looking a little irritated his story was interrupted.

"Barret would you please let us hear what Cloud has to say? You can ask questions later." I noted the slight irritation in Tifa's voice too.

"Tifa I was only..." She ignored him and looked back at Cloud

"Okay Cloud, continue."  
>"Its a reunion of childhood pals." Aeris said happily, trying to lighten up the mood.<p>

"I was really surprised with Tifa, everyone was quiet, staying in their houses. Afraid to come out because of the monsters...or because of us." Cloud looked thoughtfully before continuing his story. He told everyone how he had visited Tifa and his mothers. Everyone paying attention to every detail. I noticed the holes though. I remembered that Zack had never visited so this was a memory of his, but somehow he omitted the parts where he was an MP.

"The next day we were going to leave for the reactor, Tifa was our guide." She shuffled a little out from the corner of my eye.

"You see a Mako reactor was built on Mt. Nibel...The cold air of the mountains of Nibel, it was no different." He had a far off look on his face before he continued. After the bridge incident was described and the lecture from Sephiroth on how materia was formed, He talked about the reactor.

"Inside we found out that there was a broken valve, Sephiroth investigated why it had broken. Inside the Mako tanks were humans."  
>"Wait, you mean real people?" Aeris asked. He nodded.<p>

"Hojo was apparently testing Mako concentration on human bodies. It was then Sephiroth started to lose himself."  
>"What do you mean?"<br>"He was told he was created differently, he thought that he was made like those things in the tanks."  
>"Damn Shinra the more I here, the more I hate them!"<br>"Who would have ever thought a Mako reactor held that kind of secret."  
>"That would seem to explain the increase in monsters lately." Red noted. I guess the planet wasn't always infested heavily though the lands.<p>

"I think we should listen carefully to Cloud, don't you think Barret?"  
>"Tifa you were waiting outside then?" The brunette nodded. "...Yes."<br>"We returned to Nibelheim Sephiroth confined himself at the inn. He didn't even try to talk to me."  
>"Then all of a sudden he disappeared, right?" Tifa asked.<p>

"We found him in the biggest building in Nibelheim."  
>"The villagers used to call it the Shinra mansion."<br>"Long ago people from Shinra used to live in that mansion...It was abandoned after some time though."  
>"And then what?" I was starting to get in the story, despite having heard it multiple times.<p>

"I found him in a hidden library in the basement. He had found some documents that disturbed him, he told me to leave after that...Sephiroth didn't come out the Shinra mansion...He continued to read as if a man possessed. He was down there for days before I went to get called me a traitor, he said that Jenova was an Ancient and that our ancestors had betrayed the Cetra. He found out he was produced."

"Sephiroth...a Cetra..." Aeris thought out loud.

"Then what happened?" Barret asked.

"...He burned Nibelheim to the ground." Everyone had a look of shock on their face.

"The whole village was up in flames. Most of the people were already dead by the time I was there."  
>"That's horrible!" Aeris shouted.<p>

"He must have gone insane with the revelation." I said, Cloud nodded.

"I went to the reactor, I found Tifa injured. I went inside the reactor core and found Sephiroth with Jenova. He said he was told to take back the planet. I couldn't let him continue...And that's the end of my story." Awww man let down of the century...at least I know the ending.

"Wait a damn minute! Isn't there more?" Barret yelled.

"I don't remember."  
>"What happened to Sephiroth?" Aeris asked.<p>

"In terms of skill I couldn't have killed him."  
>"Official records state Sephiroth is dead. I read it in the newspaper." Tifa said.<p>

"Shinra owns the paper, we can't rely on that information."  
>"Then why would they hide Sephiroth for five years only to have him steal back his mother and kill their president. It doesn't add up." I asked.<p>

"...I want to know the truth, I want to know what happened then. I challenge Sephiroth and won. Why didn't he kill me." Cloud said.  
>"I'm alive too." Tifa a portion of her stomach.<p>

"Seems like a lot of this doesn't make sense. What about Jenova? It was in the Shinra building wasn't it." Me and Cloud nodded.

"The shipped it from Nibelheim to Midgar."  
>"Did someone else carry it after that. It was missing in the Shinra building..." Aeris looked over at me.<p>

"Nathan...I know this might be hard but..."  
>"It walked." I interrupted Tifa.<p>

I saw everyone's confused glance.

"What do you mean?" Asked Aeris.

"I mean that Sephiroth slashed open the container...and it walked out."  
>"It didn't have a head."<br>"I am very much aware of that Barret."  
>"Damn it none of this makes sense. I'm goin goin goin goin gone! I'm leaving the thinkin to you guys." He ran towards the steps.<p>

"Come on Cloud lets go!"  
>"Alright." Barret rushed down stairs. "Oh brother." I saw Tifa walk up to Cloud.<p>

"Cloud...How bad was I when Sephiroth cut me?"  
>"I thought you were a goner...I was really sad." She looked like she wanted to ask more questions. But Aeris broke the small silence.<p>

"The Ancients...Cetra...Jenova...Sephiroth and myself."  
>"Lets go, Barret's waiting." Everyone besides me and Nanaki started heading for the stairs.<p>

"Guys wait up, I need to clean up."  
>"Alright Nathan we need to leave soon though." The went down stairs. I started prepping when Nanaki finally spoke up.<p>

"What a fascinating story." I chuckled.

"Lots of holes, unanswered questions, and a mystery ending." He looked over. "Were you telling the truth...about Jenova walking?"  
>"Its stuck inside here now." I pointed to my head. "I'm surprised I didn't die of fear."<br>"You are remarkably strong willed."  
>"I'm lucky I didn't get cut in half." I went into the bathroom. I need to get this blood off. Hopefully nothing bad will come from this. I was still questioning though. Why let me live?..Screw it. I need some sleep after this.<p> 


	9. Chapter 9

A/N Wrote this in the span of two days I did. Couldn't find time due to school and other stuff, heck I should be writing an English paper instead of uploading this. But where is the fun in that? The is no limit to what you can achieve when you are supposed to be doing something else!

* * *

><p>CH 9<p>

"Alright everyone, after taking Nathans we have around 5000 gil, we need basic supplies, this includes tents, potions, long lasting food and other things. We will split it 4 ways though, so we will have two groups of two looking for supplies as well, I will be with Red since it would seem odd for an animal to ask for anything. Is everyone clear?" We all nodded our heads. I was denied my nap when Cloud came up and told me that everyone was leaving Kalm early since it was still early in the day, and everyone else wanted to get as far away as they could from Midgar. I nodded and followed him down. Now was the part I most dreaded though. When the game had to follow real world physics, so now we couldn't carry an infinite amount of items, we had to eat on a regular bases, and there is no infinite sunny day to travel to.

"Alright then, everybody split up. Nathan, you and Tifa are going to go together."  
>"Cool." We both went into the town square. It was actually a little more busy than the game portrayed it to be, kids were running around, adults talking, and even a vender for some kind of candy I never heard of.<p>

"I like this town, its not as busy as Midgar." Tifa said out loud.

"Yeah."  
>"I guess its because were both from back water towns huh?" Well not really...but why contradict someone now?<p>

"Don't get me wrong I love the hustle and bustle of the city but I'm more used to small towns." She smiled before we went inside some random store, it had a miscellaneous assortment of items lining the walls. Oh good a pawn shop. We started looking around, I was a little disappointed when I came across the PHS' and remembered I didn't have my tunes or phone anymore. But seriously who steals a phone in the middle of battle? Rufus must have had good reason right? Maybe it caught his eye or something...

"Nathan you find anything?" Tifa called out, knocking me of my train of thought.

"Yeah, these PHS' are cheap, we may not always be together so getting a few phones could allow us to keep in contact."  
>"Not a bad idea. Hey how much for four of those?" She asked the counter guy, I raised my brow.<p>

"Why only four?"  
>"Well not everyone needs a phone for themselves, just when we need to split up." Oh, that makes sense. After a haggling session with the shop owner we got the four at the price of 500 gil. I got my own PHS at my disappointment though, just walking around with the bulky thing kept reminding me of my old phone.<p>

"I miss my old pho~ne..."  
>"Cloud told me about that...You know Nathan how did it work?"<br>"How did what work?"  
>"That...music player. I touched it and it would go through menus, how does that work? Where did you get it?" I felt a flash of panic run across my face before I regained my composure a second later when she looked at me. If I'm correct than FF7 was kind like a steam punk world. Advanced in its own way but primitive compared to other aspects. I put a smile on my face.<p>

"Oh you mean my MP3, You see the glass screen has a receptor under the screen, when it gets pressed a current is sent from that spot so the device recognizes the location ad acts like a button and opens that menu or scrolls depending upon the motions you make." I tried to remember as much as I could about touch screens, all I had was the screen though, anything else that made it work I was completely at a loss for.

"That's an amazing idea! But where did you buy it?"  
>"Buy? I made it myself!" I almost recoiled at my outburst. I immediately regretted letting myself talk before I thought of a good alibi.<p>

"Really?" Tifa looked almost ecstatic. "No wonder you knew about the custom sweeper. And I'm guessing the phone model was yours as well?..but wait...How did you get this kind of knowledge from somewhere like Medeel?"  
>"My dad brought back a lot of books from his travels, I never liked to leave my house so I entertained myself with them. Technical knowledge kinda runs in the family." I kept the smile on my face.<p>

"Wow. That's really neat Nathan." phew, she bought it.

"What else do you know about machines?" I inwardly groaned.

"Only basic stuff, I made the phone and music player to show to company's in Midgar and sell my idea. But I ran into Cloud and kinda got stuck in this."  
>"I'm sorry you got dragged into this with us." She looked really down, I patted her on the shoulder and she looked up.<p>

"Don't worry about, bout time someone started to do something about them, so I guess I have to do my part. Now c'mon, we need to get everyone travelers backpacks if we are going to carry anything." Lucky for me Tifa didn't ask anymore questions afterward. Considering the circumstances I had a pretty good shot of not having it bite me in the ass later on...I hope. Shortly after we ran back into the group, everyone was given a backpack, Cloud and Barret were given the last two PHS', and all the backpacks were filled with field necessity's.

"So whats the plan?" I asked. "We're going south, I talked to a resident and it turns out that he saw a man in a black cloak travel that way, its our best bet." Cloud informed.

"Come on, we need to catch up." Barret said and we started out the town. The walk really wasn't all that eventful really, without having to worry about being so close to Midgar all the machines started to stop appearing, and we avoided monsters rather well only having to get into the occasional fight. The fields stretched out enough we could actually see for miles so monsters were spotted and either avoided or ambushed. Traveling took a lot longer than I thought though. By the end of the day we were only about two thirds the way through the path that had mountains on both sides.

"That's enough for today, lets set up camp. I'll take first watch through the night." Cloud ordered. The last few minutes were pretty quiet though, no one really talked while we set up tents. I was paired with Nanaki in mine since we only brought three total, I'm not complaining though. A fire was set up and we had our first meal of some dried meats and such. You know I haven't seen one cow or chicken or pig anywhere...So what the hell am I eating? Its jerky but it doesn't have any kinda specific ingredient list. Sure it has nutrition facts but nothing saying what kinda meat it is...Maybe its at the bottom of the pack...

"Nate what the hell are you doing with that bag?" Barret called from across the fire, enjoying some of his canned food, I really didn't care what he ate at the moment. "I'm about to solve a potentially life changing mystery...maybe its in small print." My attention was on the bag, but I could tell he was confused from the corner of my eye.

"Has anyone ever told you how weird you are Nate?"  
>"I've been called a lot of stuff." I responded. He shook his head and I kept looking at the labels of whatever I ate, all ending with me not finding what the main ingredient was.<p>

"Solve that mystery Nathan?" Aeris said smiling. I sighed.

"Nope."  
>"What were you trying to find out?" Red asked.<p>

"If I told you outright then you would think I was insane!"  
>"Nathan you've already proved that in battle trying things that would blow a persons arm off." Cloud said.<p>

"All successful if I might add." I said smugly.

"Even so you should be more careful, we need everyone to be in good shape. If you blow yourself apart we lose a hand."  
>"Don't you mean I would lose one?"<br>"Very funny." He stood up. "Alright everyone, get some rest, I'll wake one of you up to take up another shift in a few hours." Everyone nodded their head and went inside their respective tents. I took a side while red took the other.

"Sorry if this is crammed because of my size." He said.

"Its cool, I used to have a dog that always slept with me on my bed, he was like a third your size though. But it will be just like old times."  
>"Interesting." Was all he said before he laid down. I pulled a sleeping bag on and closed my eyes. The only sounds being the fire crackling and Nanaki's light snores. It didn't take long for me to go to sleep.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>ATE<strong>

Of course the man had to be up now. Right when he wanted rest Rufus was informed that Hojo had recovered and was currently on the security floor. Much to his dismay Rufus stayed in the building and started for the scientist. At least he had entertainment. Reeve had finished his examinations of the two pieces of technology and had given Tseng the music player put back together perfectly who returned it to Rufus. He was currently enjoying a song called _Numb_. Rufus was very curious to how a person only eighteen had mad such a device. Then again Reeve wasn't to old and had one of the greatest minds in Shinra. He guessed there could be more than one genius in the world, but to make something that impressed Reeve was no easy feat. He was in the elevator now, waiting for his stop. He looked at the small device in his hand. He was happy that Reeve had recharged the battery while he worked on the tiny device. He was surprised though. All of the songs on here he had never heard of before. Only the title of the song was shown. But then again it really didn't matter. It was fun to scroll through the menus, and the songs did tell a little about AVALANCHES pocket genius. He had songs ranging from classical to techno. Rufus looked up and found that the elevator door was open, having ignored the ding because of his headphones, he sighed and took one out to avoid another mistake if someone was around. He approached the security floors main room. Entering he saw the many video screens and a white coated scientist hunched in front of one in particular.

"Professor Hojo, I heard you were doing good after that specimen attacked." The man grumbled.

"Minor scratches and a concussion, nothing severe." He said, pressing a button on the large control panel.

"I came because a few of the members of AVALANCHE have connections to the science department, so I require your pass-codes to get more information."  
>"Fine here." He took out a pen and paper and scribbled some numbers and letters.<p>

"This will give you access to what you need, now tell me, when do I expect the Ancient to be back in my custody?" He said. Pressing the same button again. Rufus frowned and took the paper.

"We won't be going after her, she has no use in my plans." Finally the scientist turned, with a very stiff expression.

"What? I need to continue my experiments!" He yelled. Rufus' expression didn't change.

"If we happen to capture her while we track Sephiroth then you can have her, however I am curious to how he is alive, perhaps you can explain?" The scientist face tensed and he turned back to the video screens.

"That's not Sephiroth." Rufus raised his eyebrow. "At least not in body. That was a perfect replica I made some time ago. I kept him in the deeper labs."  
>"And he never did anything till now?" Rufus said coolly.<p>

"He was always in a state of animation. He never reacted to anything...he just kept still...until the other day." He was about to press that button again but stopped. He turned and handed Rufus a paper.

"I will need some free time, enjoy following him...perhaps my theory will be uninterrupted...or maybe an anomaly will occur." Rufus sighed. The man was mumbling to himself again while he walked out. Rufus walked up to the monitor, looking at the exact screen Hojo was, he pressed the same button he did. It was the rewind button. The screen cut to the man Rufus fought tipping into the glass container will Sephiroth coming towards him. His eyes widened when he saw the silver haired man pull his sword back and instead slash open the container to his right. He saw something walk out the container and froze in place. He had never seen Jenova before, he heard about it from when he attended meeting with his father, but to actually know what the thing looked like made his stomach churn. He continued watching and looked at the creature kneel down in front of the man, frozen in place just like he was but something caught Rufus' eye and he pressed the pause button, then rewind, then play. He kept doing this till he was absolutely sure that he was right, that it wasn't a trick of the light or the cameras angle. He looked at Nathans face each time. After what seemed like forever he knew why Hojo was here. The expression on Nathans face wasn't just fear... It was recognition.

* * *

><p>(3rdpv)<p>

"Cloud could we talk for a minute?" He rolled over and saw Tifa. His shift was done and he was trying to get rest.

"Anything wrong?" He walked out. Sitting close to the fire.

"I...have something on my mind." She sat across from him and the fire, pulling her knees to herself.

"About what?"  
>"..Well...What do you think of the team?" He raised his eye brow, odd question.<p>

"How do you mean?"  
>"How do you feel about everyone?" He put his finger to his lips before he answered.<p>

"Barret's hot headed, but he knows how to give orders and listen to them. Aeris is a good medic when the time arises. Red may have some limitations being an animal but he takes care of himself in a fight. Nathan may be a little off with his sword but he has magic on his side." She glanced down before speaking again.

"I didn't mean anything like that." Cloud sighed. So she was concerned then.

"Then tell me directly."  
>"...Do you think Nathans who he says he is?" He was taken back a little. Tifa never really was suspicious about people, next to Aeris she was one of the most accepting of the group. "Has he done anything?"<br>"Well...no. Its just he seems off to me, I was talking to him in town, and he had on this smile. It was hard but I could tell it wasn't completely genuine when he talked about his home or his devices."  
>"Maybe he was trying to avoid talking to much." Cloud had only known Nathan a few days, but he knew that as much as he liked to talk he also liked to isolate himself every now and again. Something Cloud could relate to.<p>

"I don't know, its like he's hiding something."  
>"Don't worry about it." She looked up at him.<p>

"If you want I can vouch for him." She had a look of bewilderment.

"You really think he's okay?"  
>"Tifa, Nathans done nothing but help us, instead of running he waited to free us from those cells, he's covered my back in combat. And when he can he has healed a few of us." "You sound like you've known him for a long time." He looked up toward the stars.<p>

"He's proved himself Tifa, he's not a warrior like the rest of us, he was dragged into this and is sticking it out for us."  
>"But how can you be so sure if he try's to hide things?"<br>"Honestly Tifa, I don't know. Its like something deep down in me is saying he is someone to trust, someone to keep around. Its confusing, like he's someone important." He looked and saw Tifa pondering something.

"Okay, as long as you say he is alright then I'm okay with him."  
>"Okay then, good night Tifa."<br>"Good night." He crawled back into his tent. Tifa kept watch for a few more hours, deciding as long as Cloud like Nathan than he must be alright. Cloud rarely had friends back in Nibelheim, in fact she couldn't remember anyone besides herself that didn't avoid or bully him. Yet here he was today having a friendly conversation with Nathan, often joking with him. It made her smile a little. He now had a friend in someone besides herself. She looked at her PHS and found it was well past four in the morning. He heard some ruffling though and sprang into her usual fighting stance only noticing that it was a tent opening and Red coming out.

"Everything alright?"  
>"Its Nathan." He simply stated. She walked over and looked into the tent. Inside she saw that he was shivering and sweating quiet a lot. He was having a nightmare, and a bad one. She tried to shake him only to have him fidget harder. She held onto both his shoulders and shook him harder<p>

"Nathan! Wake up!"

* * *

><p>Cold. It was so cold. I opened my eyes and found I wasn't in the tent anymore with Nanaki snoring near my feet. Instead I was flouting in a sea of green. There were voices, whispers coming from all directions, but I didn't see anyone when I spun to look around. I tried to warm myself up by rubbing my arms but I would keep shivering.<p>

"I hate this place." I was drifting aimlessly, The only thing that appealed to me was the waves the green made as I passed by. Swirling around and moving like water in slow motion.

"So pretty." I reached out my hand and saw a strand of green come close to my hand, it started to encircle it and twist through my fingers. Every-time I tried to grab it it would disperse and go around my hand again. Eventually it started to move up my hand and to my arm, eventually my shoulder had the energy. Soon enough I had my entire body covered in the green energy, it starting to warm my whole body.

"I could spend forever here..." The energy started to circle my head, I closed my eyes feeling the warmth start to flow around my face.

"Ow!" I opened my eyes and found that I had a cut on my right index finger now, blood dripping. It was then I noticed the energy get closer to my forearm and just barely pass over it. Giving me another cut. I panicked and started to scramble the energy away, only for it to encase my when I tried to relax again.

"Stay away!" I heard my voice echo, Now the whispers were getting louder, more sinister. The green was starting to change colors, shifting different shades and tints. I held my hand over my ears while struggling. Not wanting to listen anymore, only to find the whispers get louder, with a sound like sharpening in the back ground. I felt the energy cut me again, only this time it was a deeper gash.

"Stop!" The whispers were now filling my head. The sharpening turning into a horrible screeching sound of metal, getting louder and louder inside my head.

"Go! Leave me alone!" I started to yell more, I kept trying to out yell the sound, only to find I could hear the voices yelling at me now, the noises getting unbearable. My ears should have been bleeding.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT? PLEASE STOP!" The energy now was a extremely dull Grey, the background of the whole place was now black the energy getting more and more cuts on my body, the pain becoming agonizing.

"NO! I WON'T DIE!" I started thrashing at the energy, getting cut more and more, my mind now going haywire. Eventually the energy started to form in font of me, my blood flowing through the strands going into the center. It started to take shape and eventually had a human shape to it. Then it started to grow skin. In time It had made a whole body and my eyes widened. It was myself. But only I saw that my eyes had now pupils, they were pure white, staring blindly at me. Eventually his hands started to move towards my face and the energy stopped completely. It touched my cheek, then my chin, and finally settled both hands on my throat and tighten. I tried to fight back but every time he would just disperse that part of his body and rejoin it.

"Kill..." It said, my eyes widening, I was losing oxygen fast and I couldn't do anything.

"what...are..you..?" I tried to catch breaths only to have him tighten harder, he smiled.

"You" It said before I felt my last breath come out. My body felt heavy, my struggling slowly coming to a stop. Him just smiling at me the whole time. My eyes were closing, I was losing consciousness fast. The darkness slowly invading my thoughts. Only pain registering..slowly...

"Nathan wake up!" I opened my eyes and sprang up, breathing heavilly.

"Nathan are you okay?" I looked over and saw a very concerned Tifa and a wary Nanaki.

"What happened?"  
>"You were having a nightmare, and a bad one at that." I looked over my arms and found none of the nicks on my body, I sighed in relief. It was only a dream.<p>

"I hate dreams."  
>"Will you be alright?" Red said with hi good eye on me.<p>

"I'll be fine, I just need to get some air." I walked out and sat next to the fire. Relishing its warmth in my cold sweat. Tifa sat across from me.

"Are you sure your okay?" I shook my head. "I just need to calm down."  
>"...Okay." I took out my PHS. It was almost five, the sun would be up in another hour or so.<p>

"Tifa why don't you get a few more Z's, I'm not gunna get any sleep any time soon." She looked at me but nodded her head, she went back into her and Aeris tent and started to sleep. Red close to the fire too next to me.  
>"Your not gunna keep sleeping."<br>"You seem like you could use some company." I smiled and pat his head. He didn't object.

"Thanks." I looked up at the sky. I was happy to be back in the real world...or rather what world I was in at the moment. The stars were nice, I remember I could always pick out Pisces since it was the only constellation I knew, but now everything was completely different. The dream started to surface in the back of my mind though. I tried to ignore it but it would keep coming back. Eventually though I remembered how to clear my head. I started whistling. It was tune to Eternal Harvest from FF9. It was one of my favorite songs. I remember I even learned how to play it on the piano, it was hard as hell but it gave ma satisfaction. I saw Nanaki look at me while I whistled.

"What?"  
>"I have never heard that song before." I smiled.<p>

"Its from a story I liked." I didn't want to mention games to anyone. Medeel was back water and if I talked about it too much I would be caught with inconsistency. "What kind of story?" I looked at Nanaki and he seemed intrigued. I smiled.

"Have I got a tale for you, its about a whole different world, ancient, but not to different from our own. Lets us start on a theatre ship with a teenager named Zidane..."

The last few hours passed by quickly. I told Nanaki the almost the entire plot to FF9, him showing expressions in all the right places, asking at points to see what was happening in other parts of the world while the main characters were doing something else. It was sun rise before I had stopped at the part where the party was about to enter Terra.

"What happens next?" I could hear the excitement in his voice, reminding me he was in mind a sixteen year old.

"That my furry little friend, is a tale for another night. Its time we continue." I almost snickered at the dejected look on his face.

"RISE AND SHINE!" I yelled out. Everyone started to file out their tents. I smiled seeing the ruffled hairs of both Tifa and Aeris. I laughed when Cloud came out his tent. "And what is so funny this early in the morning?" He raised an eyebrow. I pointed at him.

"Your hairs exactly the same, it must be sad walking around with permanent bed head Chocobo." He rolled his eyes and started to pick apart his tent. Everyone save me and Red did the same. I had put mine away while telling Red the part where they were on the Outer Continent. Eventually everyone was packed and ready to go and me feeling good about myself. We all exited the mountains and came across a large field. Continuing we found a farm in the distance. I smiled, I couldn't wait to test out our first summoning materia.

"Look a farm" Aeris pointed out.

"Maybe they saw where the cloaked guy went." I mentioned.

"Lets see then." Cloud said. We started to get closer to the farm, the tale tell sounds of warks almost music to my ears when we got close enough to the farm though my eyes almost widened. I started running.

"Nathan what are you doing?" Cloud called, running after me, I was to excited to care. Eventually I got to the farms fence and was giggling madly. Everyone else coming up from behind me.

"Nate, please tell me what is so amazing that you had to make us run to the farm?" barret said, I spun around.

"Its a cow!" on the side of the barn was a small area fenced off, and inside were cows,chickens,and pigs.

"Why is that so amazing we had to run?" Cloud asked.

"I finally solved the mystery!" Everyone seemed to sweat drop. I couldn't stop giggling. Having the knowledge now that they existed really helped in knowing I wasn't eating fired behemoth or something.

"You guys wait here, I'll talk to the owner." Cloud walked off. Everyone opted to stand around while I ran up and looked at the Chocobos. All easily bigger and taller than I was. They were all yellow feathered. One came up to the fence and leaned its head forward. I scratched its feathers. It kwehed appreciatively.

"Warkwarkwark?" It said, I smiled.

"Wark" I did my best Chocobo impression. It stared at me before the entire group started dancing, everyone was looking at the spectacle. I looked at the air above myself and saw a red orb start to appear out of thin air. When the Chocobo were. Done I caught the materia mid air. I looked back at everyone and held out Choco/Mog.

"Looks like my new friends gave me a gift." Everyone looked and seemed to be in awe at the orb.

"That's a summoning materia." Aeris said.

"I hear there really rare to get outside Shinra." Barret said. I placed the orb in a slot and felt the magic course through me for a few seconds before it desipated. Right when Cloud came with a purple orb.

"Alright everyone, we have to pass through the marshlands. It has the Midgar Zolom though." Everyone seem to stiffen at the mention of the monster, I was relaxed since Cloud had the lure materia.

"Whats that?" I pointed at the materia.

"Its Choco lure, its supposed to help in taming Chocobos."  
>"Oh good, I thought I saw some tracks north from here maybe we can..."<br>"We don't have enough time to catch Chocobos." ...Wait wat?

"We need to get there as soon as possible. Its better we get there by foot so Sephiroth doesn't get to far ahead"

….

…...

…...

Awwww fuck...


	10. Chapter 10

A/N. My last chapter made me have a lot of traffic, probably from the way updates work by butting my story to the front page. I'm also happy because I'm now actually ahead of this story, so i decided to release this just a little early. I appreciate the reveiws I got and am extatic for what is about to happen, hope everyone else is too!

And and since I forgot the last few chappas.

I don't own FF7, the only thing I have here is nate.

* * *

><p>CH 10<p>

"Cloud lets talk about this for a second."

"I already told you it will take to much time."

"Just here me out, I mean maybe the time it takes to catch them will be of set by how fast they go."

"Nathan it will take hours to catch a Chocobo for everyone."

"Then two people can ride one Chocobo!"

"It will slow them down to the same speed we would travel."

"Maybe we will run into a whole flock!"

"Without a mastered lure? I don't think so Nathan." Oh god, I have been trying to reason with him for twenty minutes now, the marshlands are getting closer and I still haven't broken through.

"Maybe there is a secret pass through the mountains we could take!"

"Nathan, do you believe you can keep this up?"

"I have argued weeks on end for far dumber things Cloud."

"With all due respect Nathan, Your not the leader, I am, and what I say goes."

"When you say 'with all due respect' you really mean kiss my ass."

"We are rushing thru the marsh and that's final."

"ARGH!" I gave up. I slowed down my pace. Falling to the back of the traveling group. "Its okay Nathan." I felt a hand on my shoulder, I looked and saw Aeris with a very optimistic smile.

"It won't be when were are being eaten whole by the snake the size of a god damn freight train."

"Nathan just take a breath and calm down." I did just that, repeating a few times I became more relaxed and clear headed. "See? Everything will be alright." I let a smile get on my face.

"You know Aeris, somehow you know just what to say to people."  
>"Thank you." I noticed the slight glance she had though. "What is it?"<p>

"What?"  
>"You had a look in your eye, whats wrong." She sighed.<p>

"You know how to read people as well."  
>"Only a little, now come on."<br>"Tifa told me you had a really bad nightmare." I sighed and rubbed the back of my head. "Its nothing to worry about."

"If you keep it bottled up its only going to get worse, its best you talk about it." I shook my head. "You really want to know what goes on in my head huh?"

"It wouldn't hurt to have some insight." I knew what Aeris was trying to do. She most likely knows about the "vibes" I give off.

"I was surrounded by green. It was a beautiful place, like under an ocean, but you could see the waves moving around. It was peaceful with the only sound I heard being whispers." She was listening intently.

"Then it got ugly, It became Grey. And long story short there was a person just like me who was strangling me." She had a thoughtful look on her face.

"Hey Aeris." she looked back up. "Is it possible for a regular person to communicate with the Planet or the other way around?" She didn't answer, after about a minute I almost let the conversation stop before she responded.

"Nuh uh, only Ancients are supposed to be able to actually talk to the Planet." I looked down. "You think that green energy was the Life-stream then."  
>"Basically."<br>"Maybe your taking it the wrong way."  
>"How?"<br>"Maybe that was something your subconscious was trying to tell you." Okay now I am thoroughly confused. "You said that theory from Cosmo Canyon says everyone has a part of the Life-stream in them. So maybe that was your mind telling you something about yours." I mewled over the information. Its true only Ancients could talk to the planet. Not even Jenova could pull that off. But to have that bad a dream, with actual pain. It could have been me coping with my encounter with Jenova, trying to get the shock out somehow. I stopped thinking about it. My head was hurting to much to try to process this. It would only cause problems in the future.

"Thanks." I stated.  
>"Anytime." She smiled.<p>

"We're here." I looked to the front and found we were on the edge of the marshlands. Cloud facing the group.

"I want everyone to make sure everything is prepared and secure in you packs, make sure you have your weapons at the ready." We started through the murky land. Me praying that nothing would happen.

* * *

><p><strong>ATE<strong>

"So sir what have you found out?" Rufus looked up from his folders. Seeing Tseng along with Rude and the newest recruit to the Turks, Elena. "Quite a lot actually." He gestured for them all to sit. All complied.

"How is Reno though? Has he gotten better?" Rufus remembered he had called for the entire Turk unit.

"As adamant about his health he is, he still needs time to fully recover from his encounter with AVALANCHE." The blond Turk looked over at her superior before she sat back at attention. Recently hired then.

"Back to business then, I need you to tail Sephiroth."  
>"Any specific reason why sir?"<br>"In Hojo's files I found quite a lot about the Cetra. Sephiroth is currently trying to find the Promised Land, we simply need to follow him and we will find it."  
>"I had read reports of the incident inside headquarters sir, doesn't AVALANCHE also have a Cetra with them?" Elena spoke up. She had a very professional tone that didn't seem to fit her, even in uniform. Rufus chuckled. She would eventually find her place in the Turks. Tseng was all business, Reno the procrastinator, and Rude the muscle for show.<p>

"As long as Sephiroth is looking you need not be concerned with them, however if they get to close to him or interfere in anyway you are ordered to detain them." "Understood. When do we leave?" Tseng asked.

"Ten minutes, his last sighting was at the Mythril Mines, pick up your search from there. Unless you have any questions then this meeting is dismissed." No one spoke up. Rufus nodded his head and the three Turks got up.

"Tseng before you go I want you to listen to something." The Turk leader looked back. He gestured for the other two to wait and he went forward, seeing Rufus putting out a headphone and the device in his hand.

"Could you tell me if this is Wutaian dialect?" He rose an eyebrow. Taking the headphone the president played the song for a full five seconds before he got an answer. "This is complete gibberish." Rufus took back the device.

"Though it does have similarity it doesn't have any connections what so ever." Rufus leaned back into his chair.

"Then you may leave." Tseng nodded and left with the rest of the Turks. Traveling through the hallways he recalled the song had an odd name..fighting dreamers or something...Never before had he heard that language, but it did have a familiarity to Wutaian. Before he could think further the newest recruit interrupted his thoughts. "Reno fought AVALANCHE?" Elena questioned. No one slowed their pace as Tseng answered.

"Correct, during the confrontation he was given a...creative injury by one of their members." Elena gave him a questioning glance.

"Ask Reno." Rude inserted. Ending that conversation. They had entered the elevator and had pressed for the helipad.

"What information do we have on them sir?" Tseng sighed.

"They have a total of six members, their leader is a former SOLDIER, and each one has a past connected to Shinra...accept one."

"The one sir?"

"Ask Reno." Tseng allowed a brief chuckle. "We still have to gather information on him." He remembered to ask the president about the files had didn't have access to on the other people. Be was a little aggravated at the mystery's they had to solve left and right for the team of miscreants. And due to his assignment he couldn't investigate further into Medeel. "Curiouser and Curiouser." He mumbled.

* * *

><p>"Nobody move!" Everyone froze. I pulled out a piece of string and took off my glasses.<p>

"Nathan, what are you doing that's so important we needed to stop?" Cloud asked.

"I'm making sure my glasses don't fall off."  
>"You worry about this now?"<br>"Cloud my glasses have survived a reactor explosion, falling hundreds of feet from a tower, and a highway chase. I am not about to let the one thing that lets me have perfect vision be eaten by a large snake." I tied the last to the end of my specs. Putting it back on my face.

"Okay lets hurry up."  
>"Its a swamp Nate, its hard to get around here!" Barret yelled. Him being the biggest meant he weighed down the most in the soggy grasses and mud.<p>

"Excuse me for wanting to try to avoid a battle that would cost me my life if necessary."  
>"Maybe we won't even get to see one?" Aeris mused.<p>

"Zolom weave through this like its nothing, unless we hurry you have my guarantee." I was on edge, this early in the game it was a guaranteed kill for the entire team. "He has the right mindset, this place is foul with their scent." Red said.

"Thank you." I trudged through, rivaling Clouds speed and getting to the front of the group.

"Its already been ten minutes Nathan, if we haven't by now then we won't fight one." Cloud said. I had noticed light in the distance. Another five minutes and we would be at the beginning of the mines. I shook my head. We would be fighting one, and I had a perfectly charged fire spell in my mind.

"Hey look a clearing." Tifa ran up front and got out first. My eyes widened and I ran up two. And she was right. We got through the swamp, with absolutely no hassle. And we were going to see the area where Seph killed a Zolom. I wasn't buying for one second. I held onto Fusion and faced the swamp.

"Nate what the hell are you..."  
>"There is no way in hell a Zolom didn't notice us!" I shouted. I didn't know how they hunted or even sounded when the moved.<p>

"Nathan I would have smelled one if it came near us." Nanaki came up next to me.

"Yeah Nathan, lets just go." My hand faltered for a second before I finally calmed down and relaxed my posture.

That's when the Shitstorm appeared.

I noticed Reds eyes widen. "Get away!"

I jumped to the side and Red my opposite. Both narrowly avoiding a giant scaled tail smash the ground we were previously standing. Leaving a large dent in the ground.

"What did I fucking tell you!" I launched a fireball at the spot where the tail entered.

"The marsh must have disrupted my sense of smell." A large roar filled the air when I looked up. The Zolom had stood up. Everyone having an expression of fear on their face. The over-sized cobra eying everyone before roaring with its large sword length fangs pointed at us.

"Everyone! Attack!" Cloud ordered, brandishing his Buster and running up to the snakes base, taking a slash at it making a decent sized gash before it slithered ant knocked him a few feet away. Barret started firing at the things head and made it even angrier, making it thrash around before it made a lunge at him. Duck and rolling out the way the snake took a large bite out of dirt. Tifa took this and went straight for the things face before punching it square it the eye. The thing roared and rose back up. Now targeting Aeris who was healing a worse for wear Cloud.

"Aeris get out the way!" I yelled. She looked up and saw the Zolom make another lunge, Barret ran and tackled Aeris out the way, with him however getting a large slice on his arm from the Zoloms fangs. I ran up and sent a lighting burst into its face making it rear back up.

"Guys wait till it lunges, then strike when it gets back up!" I heard Cloud yell, me and Nanaki sending spells at the serpents scales which only had a small effect on the creature along with Barret's bullets. The thing then slithered over to Cloud, I was about to cast a fire when it had suddenly took a sharp turn and went for me and Nanaki. Surprised and caught off guard I jumped to late and got my legs gashed by the serpent. Landing on the ground roughly I tried to stand only to have one of my legs give out making me take a knee.

"Hold on I'm coming!" Aeris ran up and started to cast restore on my leg. Cloud coming behind the serpent and taking a chop at the tip of its tail, somehow having weaker skin the tip came off. Making the Zolom focus attention on him while Tifa healed me. Barret sprayed it with bullets making it shake its head. Looking over I saw Nanaki seem to take a stance before he sprinted with unnatural speed using Sled fang . He jumped and took hold on the serpent, making it screech in pain. Taking advantage I stood and launched a lighting strike at the base of its now openly bleeding tail. It kept thrashing around with Red hanging on for all dear life before he finally ripped of the rather large about of skin off the Zolom.

"Come on, we need to keep this up!" Cloud yelled with Tifa by his side again. Barret had Nanaki next to him and Aeris was fairly close to me. We looked and saw the reptile breathing heavily. Suddenly it sent its stubby tail tip towards Barret and smashed him straight into a set of trees. I looked over and saw him bleeding.

"Shit get to him!" Right when Tifa tried to get to him the snake did the exact same attack to Tifa making her hit close to the rocky edge. Her falling limp.

"TIFA!" Cloud shouted. He ran straight for the serpent and started to slash at the Zolom, only for it to lung at Red as well as take another swipe with its tail towards me and Aeris. I ducked and hit the ground face first while she was thrown back.

"Shit, we're losing people..." I looked and saw that we had lost three of our teammates, and Red looked messed up after a shaky dodge.

"We need to kill it before it gets anyone else." He launched an ice spell at the things head, having it shatter one top of its head. It roared and reared back, hiding some of its body in the marsh. I ran up and pulled out my enemy skill and cast Matra magic. The missiles hit and created a lot of smoke around the area.

"Did we kill it?" I yelled. I saw Cloud shake his head coming closer along with Nanaki.

"Hopefully we at least scared it off. Come on we need to get everyone else to a safe place." We all started for our friends. Only to hear a very sinister growl. We looked back and saw the Zolom standing higher than it did before, seeming to nod its head down. My eyes widened.

"SPREAD OUT NOW!" We ran in three separate directions in just the nick of time, because a sudden pressure from where we stood had fallen and suddenly the temperature burst to excruciating heights. All of us only getting the bare minimum of the damage, me being lucky enough to have my fire equipped with my elemental came out the best with minor burns.

"We can't let it off with that attack again!" Cloud yelled. "We need to find away around..." Before red could finished the Zolom slamed the ground near him. He jumped away only to be hit by a sweeping tail knocking him into a tree with a painful crunch.

"RED!" I yelled. I started launching lighting non stop. Feeling my body get heavier and my eyes bug out. But in my desperation the Zolom paid its attention to me now.

"Nathan get away now!" Cloud tried to run up but the snake thrashed him into the ground. I stood in horror as the serpent came up and hit me square in the chest and sent my flying into the wall, I had the wind knocked out of me before it swept and knocked me against a tree. The pain almost knocking me out.

"Nathan!" I heard when I sat on my knees and looked at the Zolom higher up again. My face in fear at the fact I would be two slow to dodge. I couldn't lift my arms and my breath hitched. My vision getting darker and focusing more. I could feel my body getting colder at the loss of my blood, and the pain increasing. I heard sounds but they were warbled...I didn't know what to do...I truly thought I was going to die... I started to cry... Sobbing that I couldn't do anymore. That I was to weak or not smart enough to get everyone away. It was then I felt my coldest...

* * *

><p>(3rdpv)<p>

He wished he had listened to Nathan about the Chocobos. If he didn't act so arrogant ant try to get to Sephiroth so soon maybe things would have turned out for the better. Barret looked knocked out. Tifa and Aeris were breathing but he would doubt the could keep consciousness for much longer. Red was down for the count after that slam, his breaths shallow. Cloud didn't feel all that better from them, he could feel his arm twisted wrong from that last attack, he needed a cure and fast. But now he had to keep fighting, make sure everyone was safe. What he didn't count on was Nathan charging the serpent throwing lighting like it was nothing. He would have been amazed if it wasn't for the sudden large tail that sent him flying into a tree with a brutal smash. And if it wasn't bad already it swept him rolling his body hard against the dirt.

"Nathan!" When he called Nathan had somehow sat up. Looking directly at the snake taking a now familiar position in front of him. Cloud became frantic, he tried to get up fully only to fall on his now bad leg, sprained and twisted from the last smash.

"Nathan, get away!" Nathan only kept staring at the large monster. Cloud having to watch as he sat helpless to the creature. Hearing Nathan openly sobbing at what was happening. He closed his eyes for the inevitable, hoping it would be quick and painless for him...and everyone else. He got something completely different.

"_Stupid weakling...must I come out now?_" Cloud opened his eyes and looked back at Nathan and was shocked. His eyes were glazed over again, only now he could barely see his pupils, his eyes were almost entirely white. And to Clouds amazement he started to stand and look at the Zolom with only a cold expression, while his wounds slowly stop bleeding. Nathan held onto his sword and pulled it out at a lighting quick pace, the spell interrupted at the now deeply penetrated hide of the giant snake.

"_Lets see what this sword can do_." He heard his voice, it was like ice with complete confidence in his ability's. The Zolom lunged at him only him to turn slightly and tilt his blade. Cloud saw as the Zolom now cut itself on his sword while he just stood there. Completely straight faced.

"_You haven't even fully found out how the sword works you dolt_!" He took the blade away before the serpent reared up in a cry, him just looking at the blade in detail. Cloud was stunned. This wasn't the Nathan he knew.

"_Fusion had to change its powers when crossing over, sure your memory's are key to its power but you don't seem to fully grasp its limitations, a fatal error._" The Zolom lunged at him gain only for Nathan to jump away unscathed.

"_Allow me to demonstrate what Fusions power can do for you Nathan._" Cloud realized he was talking to himself, as if he wasn't Nathan. He saw him hold out his sword straight towards the Zolom and hold his forearm with his left hand.

"_Bankai._" Immediately an explosion of energy erupted in front of Cloud eyes, the whirlwind smashing into the now severely wounded serpent. Its cry's of pain not making an impression on Nathan what so ever. After the dust cleared he saw the Zolom now motionless on the ground, the back half of its body now just a splatter in the marsh. Cloud was stunned. The only other time in his life he had seen such a raw display of power was with Sephiroth and the Nibel dragon. He took his sword down and examined closely again.

"_I was correct, the closer it is to this worlds genre the more power it retains from its world. An anime retains around sixty percent of its power, your air slash being from a game retained around seventy. Then if you used an attack from the series it would retain in the eighty's...so if you used an attack from here, about ninety percent of its power would be retained...Remember that_." A lowed groan was made and Cloud looked. The Zolom was alive...barely.

"_How dare you live._" He walked up and stuck his sword in its last good eye. It wiggling poorly to get away.

"_When I want you dead, you die. Its that **simple**_**!**" He thrust the sword fully through the eye socket, silencing anymore cry's from the monster. "_Pathetic creature." _Suddenly Cloud saw him collapsed on one leg and groan.

"_You and your weak body... I need more rest_." Cloud saw his eyes start to gain back their color slowly, right when they were fully back Nathan was on his hands and knees breathing heavily. Cloud couldn't put words to what he had seen. Knowing that one of his allies had the capacity to be so cold, so ruthless.. He was actually afraid. Against his better judgment he called to him, hoping for an answer to what had happened.

"...Nathan...?"

* * *

><p>(nrml)<p>

The feeling of being lock inside yourself was horrible. Even worse when you weren't even controlling your own body's movements. I was scared. I didn't know what was happening when I started to attack the Zolom, suddenly having enough power and brains to contend with the beast. And that voice. It was just like my dream. It was the other one. That cold, calculated voice. Sure that it was right in whatever it said, and it was. When he talked to me I tried not to listen, hoping I was dreaming again. Only to have the voice scold me for not knowing how fusion worked. His demonstration had shut me up inside my own head. He didn't have to have that emotional connection I used all those other times for air slash. The power shot from the sword was amazing. A blinding light that warped the Zolom into pieces. I actually admired it. That was until he had killed it so brutally just because it was still alive. I was scared when I felt control over my body again. I didn't want that to happen again, because I finally knew why Jenova spared me. It somehow knew I would be like this. That I could be just as cold and ruthless killer as Sephiroth, wanting to destroy as much as I can, just because I could.

"...Nathan..."

I looked over and remembered. The rest of the team was injured. I quickly ran over and inspected Cloud.

"Thank god your alive...I hope everyone else is okay." He looked at me, I saw that he had questions.

"Later, we need to help everyone." I ran over to Aeris and Tifa, I checked their pulses. Good, both alive. Barely. I took Aeris Restore and ran back to Cloud. Noting the extra energy I seemed to obtain. "Okay now where is it worse." He pointed to his arm and leg, along with his ribs. I help out my hands and started working on him, a full five minutes passed before I was done.

"We need to get everyone to a safe place." He tried to stand but faltered I caught him by his shoulder.

"Dude chill, Zoloms are solitary hunters, and considering the damage we did to this one I'd say they will leave us alone."  
>"The damage YOU did Nathan." I looked down.<p>

"What happened?"  
>"...I think I snapped." I walked to my backpack. I took out a few phoenix downs and helped the rest of the crew drink, afterwords I healed them. I saw Cloud limp over using his sword as a crutch.<p>

"They'll be okay, just give them a few minutes." I ran back over to Barret and Nanaki. I picked Barret up and threw him over my shoulder, I took Nanaki by his waist and carried them over to the rest of the group. Cloud eying me suspiciously.

"How by the Planet can you have this kind of energy?" I put down both people and gestured to Fusion.

"Bankai is a powerful ability, not only does it release a large amount of energy, but it temporally gives the caster increased energy, strength, and speed." He sat down next to a rock, I was right next to him.

"I'm sorry..." I looked over. "If I just listened to you, if we took the time to get..."  
>"Don't." I interrupted. " I know you want Sephiroth to pay, I may not know a thing about living a life of tragedy, or vengeance. But I can listen and understand." He looked down.<p>

"Cloud, I know you never intended this, but please. Try to consider the consequences not to just yourself, but everyone else." He looked over an I gave him a reassuring smile.

"..Will that happen again?" I frowned.

"I'm not sure. I think as long as I don't have to go through anything like that again I'll be okay." He didn't look assured. It clicked inside me what he was thinking.

"I won't be like him, no matter what I want to protect you guys. I want to embrace life, not end it. Just because I broke down once doesn't mean bad things will happen." He chuckled.

"I promise I'll be careful."  
>"Now how will we get Seph if we be careful? Lets just do stupid things when were prepared for them instead." I held out my hand. He reached out and shook it.<p>

"How do you do it Nathan?"  
>"What?"<br>"How can you take this in stride? You looked at the monster himself, you went insane and killed mercilessly because of me rushing, yet here you are, acting as if it all doesn't matter. Really, how can you keep going?" I thought for a bit, mostly about my old life. Living in a world where you always pictured yourself in fiction to avoid problems gives you an already warped mindset, almost anything seems better in a way...

"There is something much bigger here than me, the Planet is endanger. As much as I want to focus on myself I have to suck it up, do what I can, and move on." Silence came between us for a split second.

"I promise I won't tell them."  
>"Thank you." I don't know how long we sat there. But it was comforting. I knew Cloud don't feel like talking anymore and I just sat with him.<p>

"margh." We both saw Tifa wake up first. Immediately recoiling when she leaned to much on one side.

"Hey take it easy, we're safe." I pushed he back down. She looked up and around, confused.

"What about the Zolom?"  
>"Nathan finished it off. We wouldn't be alive if it weren't for him." She looked at me, I almost laughed at her expression.<p>

"How?"  
>"He ate my last cupcake, now stay down. We're camping here, I'll set up the tents." I opened everyone's packs and started pitching our tents, however one was destroyed since it was what Barret landed on. By the time I was done with our two tents I saw everyone was awake.<p>

"Damn the thing came outta fuckin nowhere!" I laughed. Barret always knew how to break a serious demeanor.

"Good to see everyone is feeling better." All eyes were on me now, I almost fidgeted.

"Cloud told us about how you saved everyone." Red said. Licking a wound I had missed.

"Yeah Nate, who knew you had it in ya." Barret tried to laugh, his ribs said otherwise and made him wheeze in pain.

"It will be about a day before any of you will be decently recovered." I reachieved some wood I had cut earlier. Laying it down I cast fire and got out what food I had in my backpack for everyone.

"Eat and get rest everyone, I'll take night watch, although I think we're pretty safe."  
>"You need rest too! If you push yourself you'll end up worse than us!" I was surprised at Aeris outburst. I was wondering if the Planet had already to her about me...Not likely, she only could talk to it in the church. It won't be able to tell her much about me until the forgotten city...where she would die... I shook my head. I could prevent it. I had the knowledge and even if I didn't like it, I had the power to stop it now. I could prevent Sephiroth from completing his strike...<p>

"I'll help him tonight okay?" I heard Cloud come to my defense. "The Mako will heal me in no time, We'll both keep an eye out."

"Then we're settled then. Now I am hungry, so everyone enjoy yourselves." I said. Already feeling the mood lighten up in the group.

Right then my body felt as if it had gained one hundred pounds, my energy sapped, and me hitting the ground.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N You know I thought about this chapter a hundred different ways, i really couldn't choose how to go with it, however I think I took the best course of action on this.

You know here is a little fun fact.

Originally I planned this story to start Nathan in Fort Condor and find the optional characters before he meets the main ones, I scratched that Idea though when I started getting more for If Nathan came into play at the start. Anyway I don't own anything Square enix related and enjoy this weeks read.

* * *

><p>Ch 11<p>

"Hey he's waking up." I lifted up slowly, my body aching all over.

"Argh what happened?"  
>"You overexerted yourself, just like I said you would." Aeris said in a matter of fact tone.<p>

"But I felt completely fine until those last few seconds."  
>"Nathan that attack you did drained all of your magic energy." Cloud walked up, looking better than last night...now that I mention it the sun is up, it was still low though.<p>

"Then how did I heal everyone and feel totally fine?"  
>"I'm guessing that boost in strength and stamina offset it, but be careful with that attack next time. In fact let me take your enemy skill, You need to lighten your load." He handed me some food in exchange for my materia. Soon I felt a little better and stood up.<p>

"So when do we go?"  
>"Since your okay we go now." I looked around and saw everyone had already packed everything and were ready to go, I got my pack from Barret and started walking with everyone.<p>

"You know today's gunna be a good day."  
>"What makes you say that Nate?"<br>"I actually kept my glasses the entire battle! I can still walk around with decent eyesight." He just sighed.

"Nate you save everyone and you think about your glasses?"  
>"Hey, I take my eyesight very seriously." I pointed at him, But when I looked at him he was staring off in the distance. I looked and saw the Zolom stuck on the huge pike in the middle of the clearing.<p>

"Holy..." Tifa sputtered.

"So..horrible..." Aeris said.

"So this is the extent of Sephiroths power." Nanaki said.

"And I thought I was brutal..."

That thing was impaled and the tree had marks all over it. It looks like it struggled while it died.

"We need to keep moving, watch your backs." Cloud yelled. We all went around the display and came upon a small cavern. When we entered It I couldn't get enough of the sight. Entire walls were covered in beautiful metals, shining the entrances light all around making the entire place have a sort of sparkle to it.

"So this is the Mythril cave." I looked over and saw Aeris in the same state I was.

"Its amazing." Tifa looked in awe.

"Careful, this place is crawling with monsters." Cloud looked around.

"Okay lets split into the same groups as before, Tifa go left, we'll check right." Everyone went their way, Tifa, Red, and me went left and found a ledge and a wall with some vines.

"A dead end already." Tifa sounded dejected.

"Hey you never know, you can find all kinds of cool stuff when your not looking." I went over to the edge and I found a vial.

"See..wait why would this be here?"  
>"Other travelers, sometimes people leave items behind."<br>"Then how do explain that crate over there?"  
>"Most likely for transporting raw mythril outside before Zoloms took over." I opened it up and smiled.<p>

"Just our luck a tent set!" I put the stuff in my pack and looked at the vines.

"You think those are strong?"  
>"I guess since they grew through such tough rock, why?" I walked up and started climbing the vines.<p>

"Nathan?" After reaching the top I looked around the ground, spotting what I had been looking for, I picked up the purple orb and looked it over, oddly it didn't have an image like the rest of the materia.

"What did you find?" I looked over the edge and held out the materia.

"Some kind of materia." I climbed back down and handed it to Tifa.

"Maybe you can use it, all you have is restore and ice." She equipped the long range materia.

"Come on, lets go meet back up with Cloud and them." We head back out and explore the other side of the cave, we didn't have to travel far to see the rest of the team come out of another cavern.

"What did you find?" Cloud asked.

"A spare tent and an extra materia." Tifa said.

"We got a mind source and had to navigate our way back. Some of these caves turn you around." We regrouped and I drank the ether we found so I could regain what little magical power I had left. Whee I got done our team had just reached the end of the cave. That is until...

"Just a second."

Everyone turned their head to look over at the bald headed ban in a blue suit.

"Who are you?" Tifa asked.

"The blue suit is almost a dead give away, another Turk." I kept my hand firmly on Fusion, though the Turks aren't supposed to fight us I couldn't risk the chance.

"Well if you know who we are then this won't take long." He straightened his glasses.

"It is difficult to explain what the Turks do..."  
>"Kidnapping right?" Cloud finished.<p>

"As well as killing Shinra's political enemy's and taking blind eyes to inhumane experiments." I added.

"To put it negatively...you are correct." He looked like he wanted to add to what he said but every time he tried to start he would stop and think it over. It wasn't until another new voice from a nearby ledge had shouted.

"Sir!" Everyone looked up to Elena.

"Its alright Rude, I know how you don't like speeches, so don't force it."  
>"Then explain Elena." Even though he hid it well I could tell he was all to happy to have her talk."<br>"I'm the newest member of the Turks, Elena. Thanks to what you did to Reno we are short on people.

"Falcon Punch, works every time." I said out loud. She gave me a glance before turning around.

"Although because of that I got promoted to the Turks." She mumbled.

"So its a win-win, I beat up a bad guy and you got a better job."  
>"In any case." She continued albeit irritated now.<p>

"Our job is to find out where Sephiroth is headed, and stop you at every turn of the way...wait a minute it is the other way around..." I almost laughed and everyone else sweat dropped at the antics above.

"Elena, you talk too much." A familiar voice now came in. Everyone looked to see Tseng standing at the cave exit.

"No need to tell them about our orders."  
>"Sorry sir."<br>"I thought I gave you other orders, I expect you to file your report."  
>"Right sir! Rude and myself will follow Sephiroth, he was last seen heading to Junon Harbor!"<br>"Elena, you don't seem to understand..." He said with a sigh. Elena immediately realized what she said in front of everyone.

"Oh!...Sorry."  
>"Awww don't be, its not like there is anywhere else he could possibly go." I said out loud, a few of my teammates looked at me funny as well as Tseng and the rest of the Turks.<p>

"Your surprisingly informed." Tseng said.

"Its not like he can travel through the mountains or ocean willy nilly, its the only city that is left on this continent." I explained.

"True. Elena, Rude, don't let him get away."  
>"Sir!" They both said. Elena climbed down a vine and disappeared from sight. Rude climbed up the one next to the exit and turned back to us. He pointed a finger at me. "Reno said he wanted to see you after his injury's that you inflicted were healed, he wants to show his affection...with a new weapon." He said the last part rather coldly.<p>

"Tell him I don't swing that way, nice of him to think about me though." Barret stiffed a laugh and Cloud smirked while Rude realized how he had pick his wording. He left with Tseng glancing back at me before he stared at Aeris.

"Long time no see."  
>"Strange...hearing that from you." She said with a little venom in her voice.<p>

"I'm happy to inform you that the president has called off the search for you." She seemed surprised at the new found knowledge.

"Its just another ploy isn't it?" Cloud asked.

"No, he honestly called it off, you are a free person Aeris."  
>"So long as you don't get in their way." I added. His focus then shifted to me.<p>

"Mr. River, it is interesting to meet you in person. Reno was very insistent on being here so he could see you again." I gave a grunt. Nothing confirming or denying how I felt about Reno.

"I must ask though...how did you create the technology we obtained?" I knew I would be asked that question. Its not everyday you obtain something more advanced than whats on the market and NOT be made by your company.

"Trial and error. Took me near one thousand try's to get the music player right." He stared at my face the entire time, I knew he was trying to read me, see if I would give him false information. However lying was something I was good at. It came natural though out my life.

"I also find it interesting you submitted an application to be apart of Shinra and then join a terrorist organization against it." I shrugged.

"When life gives you lemons, I would rather make orange juice. I hope that can accurately describe the situation we are in then." He seemed to actually think about the saying I made up on the spot before brushing it off and walking out the cave. He looked back and called though.

"If its an consolation the president seems to enjoy your invention."  
>"Then I hope the president likes my 'gift'." He continued out of the cave, Leaving Everyone standing around<p>

"Nate, what does he mean about an application?" Barret asked.

"Don't worry, I had to have a cover when I scouted the tower to rescue Aeris, so I filled out an application and marked the date earlier." He relaxed at the excuse. "Come on, we need to cover some ground." Cloud told everyone and we marched out the cave. Out in the distance we could see Fort Condor. We were about halfway there before Cloud stopped.

"We need to make camp, we'll go there to get supplies and then head to Junon. Nathan, you promised a night watch so your up tonight." I sighed.

After a light meal and everyone saying their good-nights I was stuck keeping watch over the entire camp. It was quiet. Monsters really didn't attack during our rest periods but no one wanted to risk having ourselves suddenly ambushed. I got up and walked around the camp, with the fire out and only the coals lighting up the dark I didn't trust the quiet. I never liked the dark as a kid, I mean I wasn't so afraid I would go into my closet or look under my bed but I always had a thing where if It was dark outside and I was in the lighter part I felt like I was being watched. I went away from the camp and looked around, with my clothes I blended in well with the dark. I pulled out Fusion and closed my eyes. I help myself in the same pose as I was when killed the Zolom. I concentrated on the blade and imagined the magic flowing through it.

"Bankai."

…

… I opened an eye and saw nothing happened. I looked at Fusion and all it had was that purple glow when I focused.

"Okay whats the catch?" Having Bankai as a limit break would really help in a pinch, but not if I couldn't summon it at will. I found out as long as I thought about the technique I could perform it almost perfectly, yet this was causing me trouble. In the game it took a while for peoples beatings to get the bar up and then for them to get angry enough to use it, now its just risky. I remember talking to Cloud about why he never tried to cross slash an opponent multiple times. He told me that waiting for an opening made it more effective and less risky on the attacker. It made sense to me since enemies don't just stand around anymore and are on a constant move, but why is it I can't follow that rule now? Every time I did air slash it was because I got really emotional.

"This is harder than I thought it would be..." I turned back. There was no point in trying harder. I would have to rely on my mind to keep myself alive in battles, and unfortunately for me, a break down didn't reassure how well I can handle things.

"Nothing can be easy in my life can it?" I was sitting back by the coals. Talking to myself again.

* * *

><p><strong>ATE<strong>

Tseng had just arrived in Junon, Elena trying the entire way on the helicopter to insight responses from either himself or Rude on where Sephiroths real location was. The part that irritated him was that they didn't. Somehow the man moved swiftly, he had already heard reports saying he was in Junon from a few MP's around the area.

And of all times to be in Junon it had to before two days before Rufus' Coronation parade.

"I strongly recommend you postpone the ceremony sir, with Sephiroth reported being seen around here there isn't any reason for him not to come after you."  
>"I highly doubt that, my father was in his way, I am not. It is simple enough he won't come for me personally." Both entered a hotel. Going straight for the elevator Rufus pressed the button for the penthouse suite.<p>

"And why are you launching a ship as well?" He had read that at the end Rufus was to set sail for Costa de sol.

"For the publicity of course. The people will learn to fear Tseng, but one thing I know about people is that even the most meaningless things will give them hope to support something, and what better than to say I want to increase trade and travel by riding the ship myself." Tseng didn't argue, Rufus wasn't just a good shot, but an excellent politician.

"By the way sir, did you find out anything on those connected to the science department?" He saw Rufus smirk from the corner of his eye.

"Quite a bit...in fact did you know their leader isn't even a SOLDIER? He's just an MP! Cadet Strife was used for experiments by Hojo, and by the looks of it he gained SOLIDER power at the cost of his original memory's...at least that is my theory."

Tseng had an odd look on his face. Turks knew about many of the SD's projects, but one that concerned a possible threat had never been run by them.

"It might explain the groups genius as well."  
>"How so sir?"<br>"The files were set up for deletion since they had been hard copied somewhere, I was lucky I got the information before Hojo decided to do anything else. But more to the point, I noticed the security footage and he had encountered Jenova." Tseng eyes actually widened.

"The specimen was alive?"  
>"Hojo does love his secrets, but the most surprising fact is that the thing didn't even harm him, Jenova looked like it was trying to talk to him. And he had seemed to recognize it too." Now Tseng's curiosity was peaked.<p>

"What are you implying?"  
>"Hojo had also done experiments on the towns people save Lockhart, she was able to leave Nibelheim, but when I read the reports he gave all of them Jenova cells for something called Reunion, he then placed these people around the world."<br>"The connection?"  
>"Mr. River could have possibly been one of these experimented individuals, much like Strife he possibly only has what memory's he had conjured himself." Tseng pondered the thought, it would make sense, not many documents were retrieved from the towns burning. It would explain his origin and lack of information. The bell dinged and both exited the elevator.<p>

"Yo boss!" Tseng looked over and saw Reno sitting comfortably on a large couch in the living room, with multiple bottles of alcohol.

"Reno...I ordered you to rest."  
>"I am."<br>"Yet you are not in Midgar?"  
>"You didn't say anything about where I rest." He took a large gulp from the bottle in his hand.<p>

"And my shoulders good as new!" Tseng walked up and flicked Reno's shoulder. He immediately leaned forward and groaned.

"Yes you are in perfect condition to continue your job."  
>"Hey, the president wanted me here Tseng." The man looked over and saw the president pour himself something to drink.<p>

"He is right, since you were out tracking Sephiroth I needed someone to be my guard, and he said he was fine so I didn't argue." Tseng knew that was mostly a lie, Reno probably begged to be taken.

"Boss its cool yo, I won't do anything stupid." He shook his head, then turned to the president.

"I would like to note that AVALANCHE is heading this way sir."  
>"Orders are the same. As long as they don't interfere then they are to ignored." Tseng nodded and left the penthouse.<p>

* * *

><p>I felt myself shake and I woke with a startle. I held my hand on Fusion and looked around. It was still night. My shift was still on for another thirty minutes. I grumbled and settled down. The coals weren't spitting off sparks anymore and were just barely illuminating where is was sitting<p>

"Your completely worthless, you didn't even get up." This time I sprang up and looked around.

"Come out, I won't hurt you."  
>"Simply because you can't" The voice was cocky, but I couldn't pinpoint his location in the darkness.<p>

"That's why I felt like I was being watched, you've been close by for a while now."  
>"That was your own paranoia you idiot." I increased my grip on Fusion. I didn't like how this guy insulted me.<p>

"Then when did you start following us?"  
>"I've been here the whole time."<br>"Cut the bullshit, someone would have spotted you, now come out." I looked around, not finding a trace of the intruder.

"Sit down." I felt a slight shove and I landed back in my spot. I tried to get up only for a sword to be pulled close to my neck behind me, it pulsated a familiar color. "Now be still, I believe we need to chat." The sword was pulled away and it kept myself from making any sudden movements.

"What do you want with us?"  
>"I don't care for them, your my problem."<br>"Oh gee, what makes me so special."  
>"Nothing, you just a worthless pawn waiting to become a queen." I raised an eyebrow. I wanted to turn but I had the slightest feeling I would be killed if I tried.<p>

"You don't make much sense."  
>"Neither do you Nate." My breath hitched.<p>

"Yes I know who you are, in fact I know everything earth boy."  
>"And just how do you know that?" I kept the surprise out of my voice. He chuckled.<p>

"Who would know you the best out of anyone in the whole world?" I turned.

"Why don't you tel...me..."

"_My, it seems you've seen a ghost."_ In front of me was...myself. He had my hair, my clothes, even Fusion was by his side. The only difference was the deep blue bandana covering his eyes.

"...I'm dreaming...yup this is all a dream, I'll wake up soon enough."  
>"<em>Not till we've had our chat."<em> I looked at him and he had the most disappointed face I had seen yet.

_"You think its that easy to escape from your own mind?"_ He smiled, I fidgeted. There was something behind that smile, it was sinister...much like Jenova's vibes.

"Why should I listen to a dream?" I immediately felt a fist connect with my face, knocking me to the ground. I looked and saw blood dripping from my cheeks.

"_Your stupidity knows no bounds."_ He took hold of the bandana and ripped it off, I looked and saw he had completely blank eyes. Just like the dream before the Zolom... "_Now your starting to get it."_ He roughly pulled me into my sitting position again.

"How can you hurt me? This is supposed to be a dream."  
>"<em>More accurately we are directly in our subconsciousness."<em> He went back and sat cross legged across the coals. I kept my eyes of him. The fact I looked at myself was creepy enough, add the eyes and I felt sick just knowing he was staring right at me with those empty voids.

"How did you get inside me?"  
>"<em>I said I've been with you the whole time."<em>  
>"So since I arrived, then it wasn't when I met Jenova...so its the Planet...but why..."<br>"_You really think your that special?"_ I looked up to see him smirking.

_"You think you can hear the planet, you believe you can change everything just because you exist in here now. Your just a waste of space that's going to cause more problems than your worth_."  
>"What the fuck are you even on about, your a figment of my imagination, arguing with you is worthless right now."<br>"_I wasn't your imagination when I killed that Zolom."_ He gave me a full on creep smile, chuckling lightly.

"...then why are you inside me?" I don't understand how I could have gotten anything like...him to be in my head meant something bad happened when I taken here. "_Its not that bad, it isn't as if one of the 'bad men' here put me in."_ I looked at him,surprised.

"You knew what I was thinking."  
>"<em>Like you have a mind big enough to keep your thoughts separated in all that clutter."<em> He leaned over the coals, staring at me.

"_Think about it Nathan. How do people escape problems in their lives?"_

"I don't see what this has to do with..."  
>"<em>Answer the question."<em>  
>"Read, write, play games I don't know tons of shit."<br>"_And the ones who are traumatized?"_ I raised an eyebrow until I thought about what he said.

"I haven't been traumatized."  
>"<em>Jenova?"<em>

"You said you've been here since the beginning, now cut the crap and tell me who you are and why your in my head!" I stood up, was done playing games.

"_Is it really so easy to accept being placed in a new world?" _I was about to answer when he continued.

_"Can a person really act like themselves after being thrust into a fictional place? No matter how open you are, the mind is a fragile thing. The smallest incidents can set it off. Reading a report about yourself...finding out your life was a lie."_ I looked down at my feet at the thought of Sephiroth.

_"And being torn away from your own home."_

"...I'm insane?" I feel back to the ground. I realized that as accepting as I was of the whole new life with video game characters. That didn't mean my subconscious was alright with it.

"_Don't feel bad, just think. Your as crazy as everyone says you are HAHAHAHA."  
><em> "...But how?"  
>"<em>I was made right when you were pulled here. Granted I was weak then. All I could do to you was try to communicate...all you could here were whispers and the anger I felt inside you." <em>The large grinding sound from the church...It was my own mind.

"_Jenova was a good help, she allowed me to surface more, I was happy she could see what I was capable of. But you had to let the Zolom get to you, now I have to wait till I have more influence before I can get out again."_  
>"Why?" He stared at the coals, a sinister glare was on his face.<p>

_"I want to see this world burn, Jenova isn't a completely worthless monster though. I'll take her idea, I destroy as much as I can in this planet, then become a part of it. Then destroy more elsewhere..."_  
>"Your a part of me! Why would you want to kill any of this!" I am just like everyone else. I would never be evil enough to kill innocent people, let alone planets.<p>

"_The mind try's to cope with trauma in different ways, you simply created a monster. And I intend to do was I was created to do." _In the blink of an eye he had his hand around my neck, the familiar icy feel encasing my throat.

_"Your lucky I can't crush you now, I need you to make **MY** body stronger. Then when I feel you good enough, I will take over and show this planet a true, other worldly horror." _His grip tightened. I felt myself losing air. Trying to hit his arm didn't work, somehow he was stronger. And to prove his point he lifted me up and off my feet, still holding me with just the one arm.

"_How ironic, you wish to go to another world and be a hero, save it. Yet here I am, possibly the greatest monster to be made here, wanting to destroy everything you love...yes...a calamity...a great disaster to befall all of your friends." _He pulled me to his face, making me look into his eyes.

"_Because you were never strong enough."_ He finally cut off my air supply, I was shaking back and forth trying to get away, but he held his grip and just chuckled the entire time. I blacked out soon enough, only to awake with a start.

"Nate its my turn now." I looked over and saw Barret come out of his tent, I looked around and saw it was well past my time to be asleep.

"I'm good...I can stay up longer." Barret had an "are you an idiot?" face on.

"Nate the only dude here who can pull have no sleep and still helping everyone is Cloud, now go to sleep." I sighed and went into his tent, arguing would tire me out sure, but after what I experienced I would be of little use in the morning. How ever it wasn't long I got into a dreamless sleep, and it wasn't long that I was kicked in the side either.

"Come one, we need to get moving." I heard Cloud and I got up. Soon we were coming up to Fort Condor. Even after what happened I still marveled at the place. Lucky for us the men at the fortress were as nice as they were in the game, granted we couldn't help, funds or battle help, but they were happy when we wanted to buy supplies. We left shortly afterward heading straight northwest. However we ran into a few complications...

"Okay where is Junon?" I mumbled out loud, my tired legs crunching on some weeds in the forest we were stuck in.

"They said head Northeast, I don't see how they wouldn't know." Tifa said.

"Maybe we missed something on the map." Aeris pulled it out, everyone looked and saw Junon was on the edge of the island mass.

"We are right around here." She pointed to the mountain close to Junon.

"Oh we just had to go a little more left." I said.

"Come on we've wasted enough time." Cloud changed our direction and we started for Junon again. However right when we turned someone was shouting at us. "Halt! You are in the presence of the Warrior Princes! Hand me all of your materia and you will be spared!"

"You have got to be kidding me." I face palmed. Yuffie sounded more childish than I could have imagined.

"Warrior Princess?" Nanaki said out loud.

"If you come out now we won't hurt you." Cloud said. His only answer was a loud bombing laughter. I was going to say something when I heard some kind of whooshing noise. My eyes widened.

"Everybody get down!" Right when we all ducked I saw a huge shuriken fly right past us and swerve in a semi circle. It was caught by a hand and I saw Yuffie out in the open. She had a huge grin on her face and seemed to be bouncing around like a hyper active child.

"Looks like we actually could be in trouble." Tifa said, I nodded.

"Oh come on, how bad can a kid be?" Barret was immediately hit by a smoke bomb.

"That'll teach you not to pay attention to your enemy." She yelled.

"Lets just get this over with." Cloud brandished his sword and ran at her, took a horizontal slash only for to jump onto his blade and kick him in the face. Everyone was surprised at how she pulled it off. Cloud stumbled back before getting his footing. Tifa ran at her and nailed a few punches making the ninja jump back.

"Lucky shot." She pulled out her shuriken to throw again but I ran up and took a swipe so she used it instead to block.

"Oh ho no you don't." I ducked down and swiped her legs, she made an "eep" and feel. She got up quick and placed her hand on her mouth and spat a flamethrower at me, lucky I had my elemental and I could only feel sparks go across my skin. It still hurt but I was able to run up and hit her with the butt of my sword. Aeris came up and used her pole to trip her and I shoved her out the forest.

"Is everyone okay?" I heard Aeris call out. Cloud walked out seemingly disgruntled with Tifa, Barret, and Nanaki behind.

"How did she even do that? She avoided me perfectly." Cloud mumbled.

"She has skills." Nanaki said. We heard grumbling and looked back to see her sitting up.

"I can't believe I lost" She stood and then jumped off to our side. She pointed at me.

"That hurt you four eyed jerk! One more time, I can take you again!" I froze when I heard the familiar dialogue. I really screwed up now, I took Clouds place in the scene...well say good bye to Yuffie.

"You know what I really don't want to fight." I held up my hands in a surrender fashion. I tried to back away only to have her jump between everyone and start throwing punches everywhere.

"Thinkin of running away, stay and fight! Fight I said!" I shrugged back a bit at how close she was and how loud she could be. She came up and started throwing more punches, even though she wasn't even hitting me.

"Whats the matter, your pretty scared of me huh?" An idea popped in my head and I smiled on the inside, maybe I could salvage this somehow.

"Petrified." I kept the sarcasm out my voice. She hooped away again and just stood smiling.

"Hmm, just as I thought. What do you expect with my skills?" She flipped her short black hair. Everyone seemed to sweat drop at the display.

"Good luck to you too. If you feel up to it, we can have another round, later." She started walking into the forest. Only for her steps to get smaller each time she got closer to the trees, until finally she just stood in place for about thirty seconds, then turn around looking mad.

"I'm really gunna leave, REALLY!" I sighed and looked back at Cloud, he gave me an odd look and I just walked up to Yuffie.

"Just wait please." She had a little sparkle in her eye, she thought I was playing into her game.

"Nathan what are you doing?" Cloud asked.

"SHUSH, I'm about to pull some bullshit." I whispered at him.

"What is it, you still have something for me?" I sighed and was about to talk before she interrupted.

"Oh I get it, I know you want my help because I'm so good. You want me to go with you." She was acting like she didn't even care.

"Like hell we'd want some little..." I picked up a rock and threw it, and lucky me it hit Barret clear in the face and he shut up.

"We would love to have you on our team." I saw Clouds face show surprise then a small smile.

"Heh heh, thought so. You put me in a spot. Hmmm what to do?" She began pacing a little.

"But if you want me that bad then I can't refuse...Alright I'll go with you!"  
>"Okay everyone, business is done, lets get out of here." I walked past everyone, Cloud followed along with two dumbstruck lady's, a normal Red, and a fuming Barret. "Hey...HEY!" Cloud came up with the same smile he had before.<p>

"Your a clever kid Nathan, I would have probably done the same. You saw what she could do and you got her to join us. I'm actually impressed."

"Wait...I haven't even told you my name..." Everyone kept walking.

"Its Yuffie. Nice to meetcha." I looked back and saw her snickering and plotting in the field. I can deal with that when we get the Tiny Bronco.

"Nate, I am gunna get you again for that rock." I sighed.

"Hey wait up! Wait for me!"

"Well since you got her she is your responsibility Nathan." I stopped for a few seconds and heard Cloud and Barret laugh. I was going to have to take care of a clepto who never shuts up.

This is by far the worst day of my life, ever...of all time.


	12. Chapter 12

Ch 12

"So you guys are trying to find a bad guy and beat Shinra?"  
>"Yep."<br>"Just the six of you?"  
>"Yeah."<br>"That's so cool! Will we find a ton of materia?"  
>"You bet."<br>"Are you all that good?"  
>"Totally" I really wasn't paying attention, the minute Yuffie caught up with us I had to deal with all of her questions and even her stupid sneak attempts. It was easier just to say yes to what ever she would say. Honestly we have only been walking for three hours and I have had to knock her hand of my bracer fifty times. And she keeps targeting me too, its total crap...You know Yuffie IS an optional character...maybe I could just murder her one time and be done with it.<p>

"So whats your story?" I looked at her.

"I got dragged into this mess." Yes just one good sleeper hold...she'll never know she was eaten by monsters.

"Really? You seem like a good fighter, obviously not better than me, but you did catch me off guard..." She's only 5'2. I'm a full foot taller, it would be so easy just to lift her up by the neck and cut off the air.

"I was one of the best fighters in Wutai..." Yuffie isn't needed. Its not like Advent children was canon anyway. Maybe I could prevent that too, then she defiantly wouldn't be missed

"The Single White Rose of Wutai is what I was called ." Yuffie gone, out of my hair...Sunshine, lollipops and, rainbows, everything that's wonderful is what I feel when, we're together...Strangle you into, submission so that, you'll never know whats coming and, We''ll be gone...

"Hey new girl, stop bugging Nate." Barret yelled.

"Aww but he was enjoying what I was saying. Weren't you Nate?"  
>"Yeah totally Yuffie."<br>"See? Your just jealous he was talking to a babe like me." I hear Barret just grumble and keep walking. Maybe I can keep this simple answer thing going.

"Well we're coming up on Junon so everyone be on guard. It is almost as bad as Midgar." Thank you Planet. I can see the complex coming out of the side of the mountain as we approach. Since our forest escapade were arriving almost at sunset so we can get into an inn or something. However coming up on the little town at the bottom of the place I lost any good feeling.

"What happened to this town? Its so run down..." Cloud said. The whole place was colored dull browns, blacks, and greys. All the towns people that were walking around; which really wasn't all that much to begin with, looked depressed. However remembering about the upcoming boss battle I sobered up.

"Hey Barret, you should switch back to your assault riffle."  
>"Huh, but this is a good weapon."<br>"Maybe to that band of lizards we fought in the forest but against a group of MP's I doubt they will give you the chance to attack." He rubbed his chin for a second before switching out his weapons. Tifa had the long range materia and I guess Yuffie will stop bugging me to kill a boss. I was the magic specialist so I guess Aeris and Cloud will be the support.

"Come on, lets see whats going on." Cloud made us explore the town a little but there really wasn't all that much to go through, even when we went into the weapon shop it only sold mythril armlets.

"You seem tense." I looked over at Red.

"I have a really bad feeling."  
>"Relax. There isn't that much around here that can hurt us all." We eventually ended up on the beach. I was ready to cast a fire spell already. But the sea seemed rather calm.<p>

"Who are you guys? Are you members of Shinra?" I saw the girl, she was about fourteen, if I remember correctly her name was Priscilla.

"No you got it all wrong, were fighting against Shinra." Barret tried to explain.

"I don't believe you! Get out of here!" Immediately I noticed in the distance that there were abnormally larger and larger waves coming towards the shore.

"Oh shit." I mumbled. Nanaki looked at me.

"Whats wrong?" He looked in the direction I was facing and his eyes widened as well. Bottomswell was starting to rise out of the sea.

"Heads up guys, we got trouble." Everyone was on guard and looked at the massive sea creature come out. The dolphin that Priscilla taught earlier was swimming past the monster.

"Be careful Mr. Dolphin!" She tried to run after him but the large serpent made a large wave that knocked her underwater. She didn't try to swim up afterwords.

"Hey! Hold on we're coming!" Cloud pulled out his buster sword and ran up to hit the creature, but it rose too high into the air and then hit him with its tail attack.

"I can't reach it."  
>"I can." Barret started firing at the monster and it screeched when the bullets impacted its side. Then the creature cast something. Next to me Barret was suddenly encased in a large bubble, but he started struggling. Looking harder it was filled to the brim with water.<p>

"Guys he's suffocating!"  
>"Kinda busy Nathan!" Tifa yelled as she threw a punch into the air which cause a shock wave to hit the serpent. It would have been cool if Barret wasn't drowning right infront of me. Cloud came up and slashed at the bubble, but it only seemed bounce the slash off.<p>

"How are we supposed to burst this?"  
>"Let me try." I cast fire on it and it popped easy. Barret was on his knees, breathing heavily.<p>

"Okay magic and long range is how we'll kill this thing." I told Cloud.

"Okay, everyone with long range weapons attack, others will support with magic!"

"Got it!" I saw Yuffie run up and throw her shuriken, it cutting the creature a decent length before it twirled back and she caught it, ready to toss it again.

"Aeris help Barret out." She ran over and cast cure on him. I charged a bolt and launched it at Bottomswell. The jolt only seeming to anger the creature some more. It launched a tail strike at me and slammed me across the sand. Aeris coming up and helping me now. Cloud took his enemy skill materia and cast flamethrower. I guess he got it while we were separated in the mines. The creature had a side of its body grilled and it started slapping the water.

"What the hell is it doing?" I heard Barret yell. I noticed the water start to rise every now and again. I slammed Fusion into the sand, barring it most the way and I took a deep breath.

"Nathan what are you doing?" Aeris asked.

"Everyone hold your breath!" I yelled before holding it again. Then he serpent slammed into the water. Creating a huge wave that slammed over everyone. Almost all of my teammates were thrown back against the beach wall save Barret who was the heaviest out of all of us and Nanaki taking a decent stance on the ground just to be pressed by the wave. Aeris was almost thrown back if I didn't use my spare hand to hold her shoulder to keep her close. After a few seconds the huge wave subsided Pulled out Fusion and felt its energy pulsating again. I got into my usual stance and drew the sword. My air slash traveling at the monster and being able to get a deep gash on its face. I saw a familiar weapon fly past me and slice the creature as well and fly back. I looked and saw a very drenched Yuffie stumbling as she caught the weapon.

"Here use my fire, get your barrings before you use your weapon." I tossed it to her and she seemed to lighten right back up. And continued to throw her weapon anyway. Barret got up and charged a Big Shot. Aeris was chanting, probably getting a healing up, and everyone else ready to cast.

"Everyone go!" Cloud yelled. Barret let out his Big shot and took a good chunk of the creatures tail. Tifa let loose a fury of punches that flew through the air and hit the wound. Yuffie threw her weapon again and I zapped at the monster. The creature let out one more screech and fell into the water. However due to it still being at the same height as its big wave attack it actually sent another one into the group. Everyone being unprepared was thrown back into the beach walls. It took about a minute for me to finally get my bearings and spit out all the water in my lungs. I look over and see everyone else in a similar state. But I also see the unmoving body in the middle of the place.

"Oh shit, Cloud get over here!" I ran up and looked her over. Cloud coming up as well.

"This is bad...you don't think she's dead do you?" I pressed my fingers to her neck, it was faint but I could feel a beat.

"She's alive but we need to get her fixed up."  
>"Priscilla!" We all looked over and saw a middle aged man run up. He checked her and shook his head.<p>

"No..she's not breathing..." I stood up.

"Its okay she still has a heart beat, we just need someone to do CPR."  
>"Oh course! Alright young man you do it!"<p>

…

….

"I think my friend Cloud here is more suited for that job."  
>"Nathan you really shouldn't waste time." He snapped quickly.<p>

"Come on Nate!" Barret yelled.

"She'll die if you don't." Tifa said

"Fine!" I leaned down and took a deep breath. I held her nose and blew the air into her lungs. However unlike the game I actually knew the procedure. I counted to ten while I compressed her lungs and then repeated. I don't know if it was because I did it properly or the game made it seem hard but after the third round of compressing she started coughing up water and gasping for air.

"Hey,hey. Priscilla are you alright." The man picked her up from her back and knees and ran up the stairs back to the village. I was sitting in the sand until I felt a heavy hand slap my back.

"Good job Nate, I didn't know you knew CPR." Barret said with me brushing the dirt off my shirt.

"Thanks man." I mumbled. I really didn't like the extra attention on this particular scenario.

"Any longer and who knows what would have happened." Tifa said.

"You did a good job Nathan." Cloud came up. I gave him a glare which he ignored. Everyone walked back up to the village.

"Excuse me." We all saw and old woman walk up to us.

"Are you the people who helped Priscilla." We all nodded.

"Oh follow me." We all complied and followed her to the first house we saw on our arrival.

"Please come inside." Going in I noticed the place was very warm and cozy.

"I heard what happened. You have done much for Priscilla." She lead us to the group of beds.

"You all must be very tired, if you want to get some rest, stay here." She was walking out the door before she turned. "Make yourselves at home." She then left. Barret looked around the place before taking a chair.

"I'm gunna relax a while."  
>"Okay everyone I guess were staying here." Cloud said.<p>

"Then I am going to find a shower to wash my clothes and myself."  
>"Nathan is that the first thing that comes to your mind when we get somewhere with water?"<br>"When I smell like Zolom guts and sea water yeah." I found some stairs that lead to the second level. I found another room with some more beds. I quickly found the bathroom. I started by rinsing all the grim and crud off my clothes, then I pick out a towel and started washing myself off. I was so happy to have warm water. I never liked the feeling of stale dirt clinging to my skin. After all this and letting my clothes dry for a bit started putting them back on. However half way through I looked in the mirror and was surprised at what I saw. I had muscle...well more than I did before I came here anyway. That healthy touch of fat on me was almost gone and I had almost a swimmers build. My biceps and forearms were noticeably harder too. I was so extricated.

"Dude no way!"  
>"Nathan? What is it?" I heard Cloud call I ran down to him with a smile on my face.<p>

"Dude I have muscles! Its awesome I never thought I'd have this kind of build without working out for a month or two!" I saw him groan and cover his face.

"What?" He pointed at me and I realized I ran down without my shirt and only my pants on. To my right I saw Barret holding in his laughter, Nanaki having his good eye on me, and the girls just giggling at me.

"He! 'snot funny." I didn't bother trying to cover up my chest. I knew my arms wouldn't do much.

"Does he do this a lot?" Yuffie asked.

"Nathans a little odd, but reliable" Aeris explained. I grumbled as I went back upstairs, threw on my shirt and went back down.

"Okay everyone, that's enough excitement for one day, I'm going to sleep." Barret joked. Everyone compiled and we all went to bed. I was a little hesitant since my last...nightmare. But soon enough I fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>ATE<strong>

"Sightings of AVALANCHE as well? Man security around here is so bad. Yo we need to start getting people with brains into the army." Reno was babbling to the rest of the Turks who were at joying the local Junon bar. Enjoying drinks.

"But with Heidegger as their leader I guess anyone has more brains than him. And with Hojo's resignation letter we lost a ton of our brains." He took a sip of alcohol and continued his one sided conversation with Rude.

"Should we really be relaxing while AVALANCHE is reported around here?" Elena said. Tseng made a dismissive wave with his hand.

" Reno makes a few good points, their faces are too well known. The minute the set foot into Junon, Mp's will take care of them. We are already heavily guarded enough since the coronation is tomorrow."  
>"I still think its total shit the president doesn't want us on the boat." Reno threw back another glass. Rude just nodded.<p>

"He has a few extra MP's on board. He believes that will be good enough."  
>"You don't believe that one bit."<br>"True, but I also know you only want to be on that boat so you can see the women at Costa de Sol." He took a drink.

"That's not totally true!" He yelled and pointed at Tseng. "Maybe AVALANCHE will find a way in the boat. Then I'd have been their to nail all of them."  
>"The only one you care about is River." Rude pointed out.<p>

"So? If you were tricked by a kid you'd want to punish him to."  
>"18 is considered a legal adult." Tseng pointed out.<p>

"And he covers it up real well!"  
>"He didn't trick you either, you said you had breakfast with him and he never denied information."<br>"Dude your supposed to back me up here! Barkeep, another over here." He yelled.

"I don't see why your obsessed with him sir, he seemed normal." Elena said.

"Wait, you guys saw him?" They other three nodded.

"When?"  
>"When we were investigating the mines." Rude said.<p>

"Awww man, what did he say? Anything about what he did?" He was pointing to his now less bulging shoulder.

"Falcon punch, works every time." Rude recited. Tseng looked over at them.

"Thats it? Nothing else?"  
>"Yeah he said something else." Rude made a glare at Elena.<p>

" He said to tell you he doesn't swing that way." The table got noticeably quieter.

"...Rude, did you say what I wanted you to tell him if you saw him?" Reno deadpanned. Tseng noticed the bald man shift a little.

"..." He seemed to grunt in response.

"Did you tell him I have an awesome weapon that could beat him no matter what...did you say that SPECIFICLY?" Tseng was starting to get entertained while Elena was looking at he two with a questionable face.

"..." Again he seemed to just stay like stone. Reno turned to Elena.

"Okay newbie if you tell me what he said your cool in my book. What did Rude say." Elena was looking worriedly between a serious Reno and to Tseng's surprise a pleading Rude.

"Umm maybe I shouldn't sir, I recommend reading my report."  
>"I want to hear it from your mouth. What did Rude say." She sighed.<p>

"He simply said you wanted to show him your affection with your new weapon." The table was extremely quiet for about a minute and a half. Then Reno burst into laughter and sat back into his seat. Elena confused, Rude relieved, and Tseng sipping at his liquor.

"I have to hand it to him, he thinks up stuff quick. That's exactly what I would have said." the barkeep gave Reno his glass and he tossed it back right there.

"Yo we should have hired him before AVALANCHE got'em, having one less stiff would have been fun." Tseng nodded. Truthfully he would have been a usful asset to the company. Considering his accomplishments he would have almost been as valuable as Reeve, quite possibly Hojo if he started making weapons, having his intellect Tseng could only imagine what he would have made.

"Keep it coming, I feel good now, and I'll feel even better when I knock that kid down a peg." He said. The rest of the night continued around the same. With Rude barely saying a word. Elena only talking when spoken to, and Reno carrying an entire conversation by himself. Tseng wouldn't want it any other way.

* * *

><p>I woke up to some loud music. I really wasn't bothered by it. I mean the Shinra parade theme was one of my favorite songs besides the highway chase. Looking over I saw Cloud and Tifa talking.<p>

"Whats going on?"  
>"Something strange, come quick." We all ran outside. The music noticeably louder. We saw everyone crowding around the front of a house and we came up. Right then we heard a door slam and out came Priscilla.<p>

"You alright now?" Cloud asked.

"Umm...yeah." She came down and turned to me.

"Thanks for helping, I'm sorry I mistook you for Shinra."  
>"No biggy, your fine now so its cool ." I waved it off. She came up with something in her hand.<p>

"Here is something special, its an amulet, so take care of it okay?" She handed me an orb connected to a small string. Closer examination I remembered that it was Shiva's summoning materia.

"Whats that music, its very lively." Barret said, liking the beat.

"Argh its giving me a headache." Yuffie said.

"I heard their rehearsing the reception for the new Shinra president."  
>"Rufus? Hm I gotta pay my respects." Barret said with a scowl.<p>

"Grandpa and grandma used to tell me how the beach was beautiful when they were small. But after Shinra built the city above the sun stopped shining here and the water was polluted." Everyone seemed down at the story. Because of a business a whole town lost so much. It was kinda heartbreaking.

"You think Rufus is thinking about crossing the ocean from here too? Does that mean Sephiroth already crossed the ocean?" Aeris asked.  
>"Either way it gives us an easy way to go, we don't have to worry about stealing a ship if we can just stow away." I said.<p>

"Maybe we can climb the tower to get up their."  
>"No! No! There is a high voltage current underneath the tower. Its dangerous." Priscilla said.<p>

"But...you might be able to if Mr. Dolphin helps you. Follow me!" She ran off while the rest of us remained where we stood.

"A high voltage current? I guess Cloud'll be alright." Tifa said.

"Yeah better leave it to Cloud." Aeris added. Cloud was about to protest but Red cut him off.

"We're counting on you Cloud."  
>"Hey." Everyone started to disperse.<p>

"Wait a second!"  
>"Cloud you really shouldn't waste time." I said making my best impression of him. I laughed as I left to talk to Red.<p>

"So now what do we do." I saw Tifa and Aeris walk up.

"We have to find a way in too you know." Tifa mentioned.

"The question is, how?" Aeris said. I looked around the village and stopped on the guard at the elevator.

"Nathan I doubt he'll just let us on." Nanaki said.

"Well not without some incentive maybe." In the game sure the guy didn't let you go up at first, but if you traveled back and forth between continents he charged the team ten gil to pass through.

"He'll probably want all our money, scratch that idea." I heard Yuffie chip in.

"Hey its not like we have any other options at this point." Everyone seemed to agree.

"He let me handle it, I'm a great negotiator." Everyone seemed to send me a worried glance.

"Nate your not the most subtle of people, I'll say that right now." Barret came up.

"Aww bull, twenty five gil says I can get that guy to let us up that elevator."  
>"Your on." I shook his non metal hand and walked to the guard, lucky for me he was a MP, so I didn't have to feel intimidated.<p>

"Hey man." I waved to him.

"Might as well quit while your ahead. I'm not aloud to let civilians in."  
>"Me and my friends just need to get in so we can by stuff."<br>"Well then your gunna have to wait till after the parade." I scratched my head, thinking of another angle.

"Their still practicing, so technically we aren't going in during the parade."  
>"Orders are orders."<br>"If everyones practicing then there isn't anyone to get you in trouble."  
>"To bad, now leave." Man this guy was a tough nut to crack.<p>

"how bout som gil? Everyone loves gil." He seemed to think about how much he wanted.

"Fifty gil per person."  
>"Fuck that noise! This is a one time pay here, its not like that fucking elevator is in demand."<br>"What do you suggest then?"  
>"...ten gil."<br>"Now your being stupid." He pointed out. " I'll go to forty for your lot."  
>"Twenty." I threw back.<br>"Thirty."  
>"Twenty five and a potion for your troubles, you look tired." He started scratching his chin.<p>

"Alright deal. I have been standing here all day." I gave him a thumbs up and walked back to the group.

"So? What he say?" Yuffie asked.

"Barret owes me twenty five gil." The large man groaned and handed it to me.  
>"Alright everyone come on, we need to get in and get on that boat." We all walked up to the guard and he held his hand out. I sighed and handed him the money and a potion from my back pack. He opened the door and we all stepped in.<br>"Your a good negotiator?" Barret said.

"If I got us in for free then we would be getting the best rooms at inns with gourmet food, now shut up while I bask in the glory of being an okay negotiator." I looked out the corner of my eye and saw Barret smile triumphantly. You know looking back I really don't know how much gil is to me, I'm gunna have to figure out the math on this at some point...

"Hey Tifa how much is a tent set?"  
>"500 gil, why?"<br>"Doing some budgeting." Okay I remember Game Informer does this, take an item comparable to what we have, so 500 for one tent, it houses two people to sleep in. Back in Colorado a basic tent that did exactly the same would be about...200 dollars? Yeah that sounds about right. Okay so two hundred over five hundred is equal to 1 dollar over... 2.5 gil

...wait so I paid that guy...

...like 63 bucks! Awww that's total shit for an elevator ride, next time I see that guy I am going to kick his ass! It was a few minutes later that we had arrived at the top of the place and got out onto the streets. We all ran and saw that the place had a ton of people waiting around.

"Guess we got here early enough." I mentioned.

"Come on, we need to get to the docks." We all nodded our heads and started moving about the town. The parade started shortly after. Since no one seemed to know the layout we followed where the parade seem to run through. Eventually we found the docks.

"And how are we going to get in?" I asked.

"We disguise ourselves!" I heard Yuffie blurt out Tifa was about to knock down that idea until she thought about it more.  
>"That's not a bad idea. We could take some uniforms and help load the cargo."<br>"There might be a problem with a few of us." Nanaki mentioned along with me looking at him.

"Just stand on your hind legs, humans don't notices obvious stuff, trust me."  
>"Can we just hurry up, the music is even more annoying up close." Said Yuffie while she covered her ears.<p>

"You know I like it, lyrics are total shit though." Hearing the crap in real life about Rufus being great being sung with one of my favorite themes jarred me, but I haven't had my music for almost a week so I could tolerate it. Getting closer to the ship we found a few men still loading cargo.

"Okay, jump'um on three." Barrett said while we hid. He counted down with his fingers. One three we came at the unsuspecting sailors and knocked them out. Barret just bonking one on the head, Tifa clocking a dude across his face, and Yuffie taking a guy Barret's size somehow. Taking their uniforms and dumping the guys in a nearby alley. Barret got his uniform as well as Tifa and Aeris. Everyone ran inside the ship when the coast was clear.

"We still need to hide." Yuffie said.

"Lets just go to the lockers, maybe someone left their uniform unaccompanied, or some are unlocked" She nodded and we went up the stairs. Despite the game the boat actually had three levels. The middle that the game skipped included the boats cafeteria as well as crews quarters. Sneaking around we found the lockers and by shear luck we actually found uniforms for everyone. All of us dressed we headed off in different directions to hide before the boat. The only people that seemed to worry about being caught were me and Red. Him trying to balance and walk on two legs was almost to hard not to laugh at. And my uniform was slightly small. The pant legs hovered just above my ankles and the hat was too small put it over my original clothing too so it was baggier that everyone else. However both of us stayed up top and tried to look normal. I acted like I was checking how tight the ropes were and Red...just kinda danced around in his MP uniform. I heard the foghorn blow and all the real sailors started running around while the ship started moving. After some time passed I decided to explore the ship a little more. Going down below it was almost as eventful up top, with people running around and orders being shouted every now and again. I realized that MP's seemed to only guard important rooms like where Rufus was and the communications and engine rooms. I went to the lower levels with the cargo and looked around. Out the corner of my eye I saw a sailor hunched over a large box and wobbling. I sighed.

"Yuffie whats wrong with you?" I came up and whispered.

"I hate ships...please tell me you have a tranquilizer." I sighed. I knew this was going to happen and pulled out the vial. She opened it quickly and downed the contents.

"Aww gross that's bitter...thanks Nate. Where the others."  
>"I think I know where everyone is."<br>"Could you help me out then?" I looked behind me and found an MP looking at us. But seeing the buster sword leaning against a box close by behind him tipped me off.

"Cloud, good to know you made it." I smiled.

"So everyone's hidden huh?" I nodded.

"Aeris is somewhere around here, Tifa and Red are up top, and I don't know where the hell Barret is." Well I did but I don't know how the game works in real life when you have to talk to everyone to find the big guy.

"I'm going to look around, stay hidden." I nodded and Yuffie gave a half halfhearted wave before Cloud walked by. I heard her retch a little behind me.

"Seriously your gunna blow our cover!" I whispered loudly. "No I'm not, this was my idea, we're totally invisible."  
>"Yes a sailor with motion sickness is the best cover...come on." I tugged her arm and forced her to follow me up the stairs to the top level of the boat.<p>

"I can't be up here! I'll puke for sure and blow it!" She said angrily, I held on until we were close to the middle of the boat close to the item seller sailor...at least I think he was I don't know.

"Come on let me go!"  
>"Just be still." near the edge of Reds platform I made her stand and look south.<p>

"What are you doing."  
>"Helping. Now stare at the horizon and take slow breaths." She did exactly as I told her. Within a few minutes I noticed her knees stop shaking.<p>

"Wow, its almost gone. How did you know how to help that?"  
>"Had a friend with motion sickness. As long as you stand in the middle of the ship you feel the waves less. And staring at something solid and unmoving like the horizon helps too."<br>"You are really smart Nate." I shrugged it off. Wikipedia and Google, I swear this world is missing out.

"Just basic knowledge of inner ear functions." I deserve to look good in front of my team every now and again.

"How do you know so much?" I told her the same story I told everyone else about how I was closed off a lot and read. She listened intently to every detail too.

"You never liked to go out? I always tried to get away from home."  
>"And why is that?"<br>"To stuffy, everyone where I live is all stuck up and "tradition is the only way."  
>"So you were born in Wutai then?" I asked. Sure I knew her whole back story but if I didn't ask questions I'd seem disinterested.<p>

"Yep, they could never hold me for long though, cuz I am the greatest ninja in history." She proclaimed a little to loudly, luckily the hustle and bustle of the ship covered it up. I was about to ask another question when the intercom came on.

_Emergency alert! Reports of a suspicious character found! Those not on detail, searchthe ship, report when found! I repeat..._

Yuffie and me looked at each other and then to the middle of the boat, everyone was scrambling to get below deck. We stayed put, Yuffie on guard while I just stood there. We weren't in total danger yet. Everyone came up and started looking at the little circle of MP's and sailors. Everyone shouting where someone else was until we all realized everyone of us were present.

"So everyone's here?" I heard Aeris say, confused.

"So wait...you don't think that suspicious character..." Barret started.

"Sephiroth?" Cloud said.

"You sure?" said Tifa.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?"  
>"Then lets find out."<br>"Its the most logical thing to do."  
>"err not me...i don't even like Sephiroth..and I feel sick..."<br>"Bullshit you've been good for the last ten minutes your coming with us." I snapped.

"Then its decided." Everyone got out of their uniforms and into their regular clothes. We all went down to the lower levels and retrieved the weapons to big to lug around without anybody noticing...or everyone that would notice us was already taken care of. In the cargo area we had run into multiple dead body's, all with slash marks had the same defining features too. We explored the rest of the cargo bay until we came upon the door that was normally guarded open. Going inside we saw two guards dead and one just standing in the middle of the room.

"Is it...Sephiroth?" He walked up to the man. He took his shoulder and turned him around fast. The man had a look of horror etched onto his face, with no slashes what so ever. The man died simply from terror. The whole group was unsettled and took a step back. The body making a large thud when it landed.

"No...not Sephiroth." Cloud whispered. Suddenly the whole area seemed to shutter. Everyone was on guard when a voice boomed out of nowhere.

"After a long sleep...the time...has come." Looking at the spot where the man was standing we saw a figure start to come out of the steel floor, passing through it leaving no trace. Sephiroth opened his eyes and stared at us.

"Sephiroth! your alive!" Cloud said with venom in his voice. Sephiroth looked at Cloud and raised an eyebrow.

"...Who are you?"  
>"You don't remember me? I'm Cloud!" Be pulled out his buster sword and readied himself.<p>

"Cloud?" He seemed to be searching his memories but couldn't remember him.

"Sephiroth what are you thinking? What are you doing?" Sephiroth ignored him and looked up.

"The time...is now..."  
>"What are you saying? Be more..." Sephiroth had suddenly jumped into the air and hovered for a second before flying right through the group and knocking everyone down.<p>

"How does he do that? I asked as I got up. "The is total bull..."  
>"Nathan what is it?" Aeris asked. I pointed up. At the very top of the room was a large molded mass of pale and purple skin. And it was starting to fall towards the group.<p>

"RUN!" I yelled. Everyone leaped out the way and looked at Jenova, which was now starting to form into the large hunk of skin boss from the video game. However the key differences I noticed where that Jenova wasn't gigantic like the game. It had grown to be around twelve feet and wider than two Barrets though and that was enough to bring back memories from the tower.

"Is that Jenova?" Cloud said. In awe at the size the thing was now. I looked over and saw Aeris in the same state I was in.

"Don't matter, kill it!" Barret yelled and started firing his gun. The bullets made little impact on the body when Jenova yelled and took a shot at Barret. It concentrated and had actually shot a laser at Barrets straight in the chest. The large burn mark being extremely noticeable.

"Shit, guys keep moving around!" I yelled as I scrambled and went for a strike at the bottom of the mass. The slices actually hit clean through and Jenova used her tentacle to hit me back. It wasn't as bad as being hit away by a Zolom but it had enough force to shoot me to the other side of the room. My back hit the wall hard but I mustered enough strength to get back up.

"Aeris I could use some help." I yelled. But looking over she hadn't moved an inch since the battle started. Her still looking at Jenova with wide, fear laden eyes. I went over to shake her back when I saw Jenova concentrate another laser in her direction.

"Someone get Aeris out the way!" Tifa came up and pushed Aeris out the way before the laser struck her. Cloud ran up and slashed a few times before jumping back after getting hit by a shot from Jenova while Yuffie threw her shuriken getting a few cuts on the upper part of the body.

"Its too tough." Said Red who had casted a fire spell on the monster, making it screech while it burned.

"I don't care, just keep attacking." Cloud yelled while he cast flamethrower. The creature then lifted up one of its large appendages and shot a larger laser through the entire hull. The metal held up but Red, Yuffie and myself were hit. He intense heat from the concentrated beam made me scream out when it cut across my leg. Tifa ran up and healed what she could but Jenova made another shot towards us so we had to roll out the way. I tried to run to Aeris, although it was more of a limp than anything.

"Aeris, I know its a monster, but sitting here waiting to be eviscerated isn't going to do anything!" I shook her, he eyes kept on the large creature.

"That...isn't an Ancient." She sputtered out.

"I can tell that much but everyone needs your help now suck it up!"  
>"Nathan watch out!" I looked back to see another shot come at me and Aeris, we tried to move but the beam cut across my back before we fully got out the way. "Nathan? Nathan are you okay!" Aeris shouted.<p>

"Its like getting cut by a burning scalpel how the FUCK do you think I feel?" I got up feeling the heat surge through the wounded area.

"Nathan its too tough."  
>"Aeris, just sit tight." I reached into my pocket and pulled out the amulet. Looking at the red orb I ripped off the summoning materia and held it out.<p>

"Come on, lets see what this can do." I concentrated on the orb. In an instant I felt my energy get sapped quite a bit when all of a sudden it started to snow inside the ship. I looked up and saw Shiva. Her hair was an amazing neon blue and her skin as pale as snow. She held up her hand and all of the snow in the room started swirling around Jenova. Before the monster could react the snow all turned into large shards of ice, piercing through her. She howled in pain. I looked back up and saw Shiva fade out of sight.

"Its still alive!" Cloud shouted. I looked back and saw that even though it was surrounded by ice it struggled in the cold poles impaled inside of it. But the scene gave me an idea.

"Cloud! Use Beta!"  
>"Use what?"<br>"That spell the Zolom used, the enemy skill materia can use it. Cast it now before any of the ice shatters!" He pulled out the materia and concentrated. I looked back at Jenova and saw energy start to spiral around it. The swirl of bright reds and oranges started to compress until finally an explosion of heat hit Jenova. The ice instantly melting and boiling the dead mutated flesh. Jenova finally started to die with the sudden shift from intense cold to scolding hot. The large mass of flesh fell onto the floor. I fell on the ground trying to catch my breath.

"What the fuck was that thing?" Barret said walking over.

"Its dead right now so lets just..." I stopped when I heard some odd noises. Looking over the dead flesh was now shrinking continuously. Eventually it stopped when it was the size and shape of a regular arm. Everyone walked over to investigate it.

"I've seen this somewhere before...its Jenovas arm." Cloud said.

"Sephiroths been walking around with that?" Barret pointed.

"I can't believe a monster like that got on here." Yuffie said with Red nodding in agreement.

"So it was Sephiroth."  
>"He said something about it being time fore something." Tifa said.<p>

"Time...is now?" Cloud looked confused.

"I don't know what the hells goin on! Cloud explain to me whats happening, this is too confusing."  
>"Alright fine but don't interrupt me." He started pacing.<p>

"Sephiroth went searching for the Promised Land so he could become ruler of the planet...that was five years ago. Then he came back and killed the president." He looked back at all of us.

"And we all just saw him now, so he has Jenova with him because he wants to go to the Promised land with her...I guess that's about it then." When he finished the intercom came on.

_Dock workers, we will be docking Costa de Sol in five minutes. Prepare for docking._

"Wow, we best hurry and hide somewhere." Everyone seemed to comply. I tried limping but looked at the dead arm.

"Yuffie, I want my fire materia back, I want that thing reduced to nothing."  
>"You gave it to me."<br>"Yes and I need it back."  
>"Sorry I need it." She ran off to hide. I sighed. I knew I should have never given it to her. She would just hog it away from me. Going back I held out my hand and casted bolt onto the arm. Making sure to concentrate enough to make a steady stream. Eventually it burst into flames with the amount of electricity it gave off. Looking a little more I found another red orb. I picked up the summoning materia and limped behind everyone else to hide while the crew unloaded.<p>

* * *

><p>AN no major events so no note at the front. Hoping everyone enjoyed this chapter. Remember i like reviews erry now and again. Till next weeks chappa. Laterz


	13. Chapter 13

A/n just barley missing my mark, had a bit of block and could only write this today, its a bit smaller than the other chappa so i feel a little sad, but hopefully it does well enough.

* * *

><p>Ch 13<p>

"God I'm still limping, what the fuck." I complained while we were exiting the ship.

"Nathan whats wrong?" Aeris said.

"You cast cure on me four times and it still hurts to put my full weight on my leg. How does that work?"  
>"Nathan cure isn't an all life saving solution. In all honesty its just was quick injury fix until you are able to get serious medical treatment. Much like a broken bone, you still need a splint and proper care, just casting cure makes it heal at an abnormal part of your arm and can make it useless." We were just getting off the ship now. The tropical sun hitting my face hard. I'm still pissed, apparently there are a lot more limitations than what the game lets on.<p>

"Damn its hot." Barret said when we all got to the docks, now fully in the hot suns rays.

"But I sure feel better saying goodbye to that sailor suit. Now be sure to mingle with these folk, so we don't look suspicious."  
>"Aww to bad, I liked Barrets sailor suit he looked so cute." Aeris pouted.<p>

"What do you mean 'cute'?"  
>"Barret why don't you use the suit as a pair of pajamas?" Tifa added, trying not to laugh.<p>

"What? Cloud are they serious?" Cloud seemed to contemplate.  
>"Awww you look like a bear wearing a marshmallow." I couldn't hold my laughter in any longer, Cloud suddenly going from serious face to that was to much. "HAHAAHAHAAH..OH GOD...I can...I CAN'T breath...!" I fell onto the dock, the sudden impact on my still sore leg sobered me up quick.<p>

"Yeah you better quit laughing, these happen to be the most comfortable. So shud'up!"  
>"Nathan just don't do to much with that leg for about an hour, it will feel better then." Aeris told me, I nodded.<p>

"Could we please hurry, this heat is drying my nose." Red said while panting.

"Yeah mine too!" I gave Yuffie an odd look. "Alright everyone, we'll take a break and then head out. Don't wander to far off." Cloud said.

"I'll wander where ever I damn want!" Barret ran of with Red following, mumbling something about laying somewhere cool.

"Don't look for me." Yuffie ran off as well.

"Later guys, I haven't eaten all day." I limped off into the resort town. After a while I started using Fusion as a cane which helped a lot. I eventually got into the bar and felt a little out of place. Almost everyone was well tanned and wearing some sort of swim trunks or bikini. And there I was standing with a ruined shirt and pants with one leg that went only passed my knee. I got into one of the bar chairs and just relaxed before the owner came up.

"You look pretty roughed up."  
>"I feel it too." "Nothing a drink and laying down on the beach wouldn't cure, Costa Del Sol does wonders to stress, so what will you have?"<br>"What is pretty good right now?"  
>"Right now a Sex on the beach is the most popular drink."<p>

...

"Do you card?"  
>"Every now and again yes."<br>"How old do I look to you?"  
>"...twenty two. I'm usually spot on when it comes to peoples ages, let me guess your older."<p>

...Sigh...

"Just get me a Cola, I don't want to argue this right now." As tempting as getting drunk sounds it will not help my leg. But god these people are making this too easy for me to exploit them. I'm surprised every bar is so lenient on drinking ages...but we live in a world where fourteen year old's are recruited into the army so I must be the only sane person left on the planet, and I ain't even from here...

"I'm sorry a what?"  
>"Cola?"<br>"I have never heard of that. What do you mix?"

….Don't you dare tell me...

"I'm sure you have, its a soda...the best soda there is..." I hissed.

"Like I said, never heard of it." I immediately got up and walked out the bar. Once I was out outside I felt like venting.

"BULLSHIT! There is no way in hell Cola isn't here! Its the most popular drink around and now it suddenly doesn't exist?"  
>"Nathan are you okay?" I turned to see Red hit a ball with his tail.<p>

"No, No, I just found out one of the greatest beverages of all time isn't sold here...or anywhere for that matter...I am just...peachy." I smiled, not really caring if it was crooked or not.

"You were yelling about a drink not being sold?" He asked.

"You would never understand...no one will." I walked off, I might as well get food inside me...and maybe a more even tan, this farmers tan doesn't really seem all that cool now...In fact I'll go by a tube, enjoy floating in the ocean soaking up the sun...not drinking and Coke...contemplating how life could exist now...

* * *

><p><strong>ATE <strong>

"What a long boat ride that was." A large man said as he exited the ship. Followed by Rufus who had a look of slight annoyance on his face.

"Good work everyone."  
>"Gya, ha, ha! Hurry up with that!" Heidegger yelled.<p>

Two sailors started working on the Shinra company helicopter. "Its good we've had in increase in importation, more income for us, gya hahahahah."  
>"You know, I heard Sephiroth was abord the ship." Rufus stated, cutting off Heidiggers laugh.<p>

"...Yes."  
>"As well as Cloud and the others." He turned and glared at the fat man.<p>

"...Yes."  
>"They all slipped through, you screwed up this time Heidegger." The man looked down at the ground.<p>

"I am ashamed of myself."  
>"Is that all you can do? Give one word answers and apologize for everything?" Rufus scolded the man until a sailor came up.<p>

"Ready for departure sir!"  
>"Do something, I'm expecting results." Rufus walked to the helicopter and boarded it. Shortly after leaving the port he began thinking.<p>

"The pompous idiot let them all get through...AVALANCHE is clever...if only there was a way to track them without knowing." Right then Rufus' phone had rung. He opened it and looked it was from the Urban development department.

"Reeve, you know it is hard to get a good signal while I'm on a helicopter."  
>"Yes but I wanted to let you know I finished looking at the phone." Rufus relaxed. Some good news today then.<p>

"Anything of interest."  
>"Besides the technology behind it I found quite a few pictures."<br>"Interesting, I will have to take a look at them when I arrive at my fathers mountain home."  
>"The one near Gold Saucer?"<br>"Yes." Being the president of a world renowned company gave the old president a lot of ways to spend his money, one of which was multiple homes on continents giving him access to almost every type of vacation possible, the villa in Costa Del Sol was just one of many of these vacation homes he had the pleasure of being in.

"Then I will be able to get you the information within a days time."  
>"Are you already in the area?"<br>"No I will be sending Cait Sith in."  
>"The robotic cat?" Rufus knew of Reeve's pet project, as well as his "special" ability to control it which was one of the reasons he was hired by his father.<p>

"Yes I finally perfected him. He can defend himself now, so I can ship him out and then have him meet you." Hearing this Rufus came up with something, although it was a long shot he couldn't waste the opportunity.

"How well can it fight?"  
>"With the addition of the moogle robot he can use materia as well as megaphones to amplify sounds to painful levels."<br>"How well can you control it?"  
>"Its second nature, he has a complete personality of his own, and with the new Mako engine inside him he can last quite a while and don't I won't to worry about him cutting off our connection."<br>"Reeve, you may have just solved a dilemma. I will call you when I reach my destination, send Cait Sith at the Gold Saucer, I have a plan." Rufus, happy with the idea he had took out the MP3 and started to enjoy some music.

(Elsewhere)

Cloud was enjoying the break as well as everyone else. After the confrontation on the boat he realized that Jenova was more dangerous since the years had passed. He had wonder onto the beach, not really wanting a tan or anything. But the sound of the waves helped him think. He noticed however both Tifa and Aeris with distraught looks on their faces.

"Whats wrong?"  
>"Oh Cloud..." Aeris said. Looking back.<p>

"Cloud...look at that." Cloud looked over and saw multiple women laying around pampering somebody, in reality he never would have minded, but the man they were pampering caught his attention.

"Is that Hojo?" He said disbelievingly.

"Go over and talk to him. He might know where Sephiroth is." Cloud took Tifa's advice and tried to get the scientists attention. However he didn't seem to pay attention so he had to think of something else.

"God what do you want?" Asked one of the woman.

"I want to talk with that man." Cloud said irritated. She gave him a look before talking to Hojo.

"Professor Hojo, this scary man say he wants to talk to you." She said.

"I'm busy right now."  
>"To bad, now talk." Cloud said.<p>

"Alright. You sure are loud." He looked over and seemed to study Cloud before a smile came on his face.

"Long time no see Cloud."  
>"Hojo."<br>"What are you doing here?" Tifa asked.

"Sometimes you just gotta do something like this." Hojo said relaxing back into his chair.

"What are you trying to pull?" Cloud couldn't believe Hojo was there for down time. He knew the man would never just stop working.

"It should be obvious, I'm getting a tan."  
>"Enough games, answer me!" Hojo shrugged off the yell.<p>

"It seems we are after the same goal."  
>"You mean Sephiroth?"<br>"Did you see him!" Tifa questioned.

"I see...interesting." He said now standing up.

"What?"  
>"Nothing, I'm just remembering a certain hypothesis." He then eyed Cloud.<p>

"Tell me, have you ever had the feeling someone is calling you? Or you should visit someplace?"  
>"I'll go anywhere Sephiroth is at." Cloud stated. Which only seemed to amuse Hojo.<p>

"To beat him and end all this."  
>"I see...this could be interesting. Were you in SOLDIER?...hehehehe. Would you like to be my guinea pig?" Cloud started reaching behind his back. "Are you going to draw your sword?" Hojo said with a toothy grin.<p>

"Stop Cloud, I know how you feel, but you mustn't" Cloud looked back at Tifa and then around the beach. He shouldered his weapon only to hear Hojo laugh at him and walk towards Aeris.

"Aren't you the Ancient?"  
>"I am Aeris, the least you can do is remember my name." She said angrily.<p>

"I want you to tell me something Hojo, I know I am an Ancient? My mother told me so."  
>"Your mother? Oh you mean Ifalna. How is she."<br>"You didn't know? She died!" Aeris was shocked he didn't know that after all this time he didn't know her mother was dead., especially since he was the one who caused it. He frowned.

"I see."  
>"Hojo." She started. "Is Jenova an Ancient? Is Sephiroth an Ancient? Do we have the same blood?" He was ignoring her, he would mumble something about a reunion and other topics.<p>

"He's no use." Cloud said.

"He's mumbling, he's hiding something." Tifa accused.

"He said something about heading west." Aeris said.

"Lets go." Cloud said, but before they could leave he called them out.

"Hold on."  
>"What do you want?"<br>"I have a question of my own."  
>"That being?"<br>"Where is that boy?" Cloud was confused.

"Who."  
>"The one who saw Jenova leave, where is he?" Cloud realized he was talking about Nathan.<p>

"What do you want with Nathan?" Tifa asked.

"I simply wished to ask him questions, perhaps make a few experiments." Hojo said with a sinister glint in his eye.

"If you think we'd let you continue on another one of us then your wrong."  
>"You don't even know who the boy is do you?" Hojo said.<p>

"What he could hold, what he could possibly make him another scientific breakthrough..."  
>"That's enough." Cloud wouldn't hear it. Fine then, however I will be curious as to how you will react to what he is..hehehehe." Hojo laid back down onto his chair. Cloud and the rest of the group left to go back into town. Cloud started wondering though. He knew Hojo had an obsession with his work, and often his experiments when they came out the way they did. He remembered that more often than any SOLDIER Sephiroth had check ups with the man. And considering how he had an interest with Aeris he had to ask why he was now interested in Nathan.<p>

Maybe Nathan had more of a connection to Shinra than anyone thought. From what he had said he also had a brother who was in the Shinra navy and his father worked in weapons manufacturing. He had a weapon that could have only been made in Shinra since it was near impossible for regular weapon makers to combine materia without proper equipment, and he never could forgot about Nathans unusual powers with materia.

"Hey guys whats up?" Cloud looked and saw said man using his sword as a cane to get on the beach.

"Nathan what are you doing here?"  
>"I came to get me some sun and maybe chill in the water."<br>"Sorry Nathan but everyone is going to the in, we won't be able to stay long." Cloud said. After what just happened he wouldn't let Nathan anywhere near Hojo.

"But...I just got an inner-tube with my share of gil..."  
>"Sorry but we have to hurry. Come on Nate." Nate reluctantly followed them off the beach and to the inn. Cloud was reliveved. Until he sorted things out he didn't want Nate to be close to anyone in Shinra.<p>

* * *

><p>(a few minutes later)<p>

Man no drinks, no swimming, and the food at the inn was bland as hell. Everything about today has sucked.

"Well you can put your weight on it now, but running might not be a good idea until another day passes." Aeris said.

"I still don't see why I can't go swimming." It was a little odd when Cloud told everyone to meet up here. Aeris seemed to try to think of an answer before I sighed.

"I guess its for my own good. He knows more about injury's than me." Aeris relaxed at my answer and went to her bed. In fact the only people here who weren't in a downer kind of mood were Red, Barret, and Yuffie. The latter of the three seeming to bounce up and down.

"Whats so exciting.?"  
>"I got a ton of new materia." oh god.<p>

"You stole it all didn't you?"  
>"What? How could you think that?" I pointed to the slot that used to house my fire.<p>

"You gave it to me."  
>"Temporarily, and I want it back."<br>"To bad, and I got all these because the seller gave me a great deal." I sighed. She probably threatened the guy...or wined for to long.

"Okay everyone, we're heading west." Cloud said with everyone gathering.

"Hojo happen to give us some information on where Sephiroth is heading and we are going to keep following him."  
>"Any particular reason why we are here then?" I asked.<p>

"Since we have had multiple run ins with powerful and large monsters I wanted to give everyone a role in battle."  
>"A what?" Barret said.<p>

"I'm guessing your going to play to everyone's strengths so we all complement each other." I said.

"Right, so everyone pool in your materia." Before she could argue I snatched Yuffie's new materia and threw it into the pile. Besides purple and red we had two lightnings, fires, and one ice. Two cures, one heal, revive, seal, enemy skill, steal, sense, throw, unused poison and earth, three all materias and one elemental. "And not one has leveled up." I said out loud.

"The lightning and fire you had are pretty close." Cloud said.

"So how are we doin this?" Barret asked.

"We'll distribute the materia among everyone to make sure we are a well balanced enough team." He picked up the steal, sense, and long range. "I'm the most well rounded person here, so I will take these since I will have a better use for them. Now Tifa..."

For about an hour Cloud organized how we all got our materia, Barret complained at one point about only getting earth and ice but I explained to him he was a brawn kind of guy, so magic would only be used to give a small edge. Since we only had so much materia the two who drew short stick were Red and Yuffie, the ladder only got the lower level fire and throw and through while the former had poison, elemental, and seal. I was happy receiving my almost leveled up lightning and fire materia and rubbed it in Yuffie's whining face with glee, Tifa and Aeris were basically the healers of our group taking the cure.

"Alright everyone. Get some sleep, we're heading out tomorrow." Cloud said. Everyone left to their corresponding rooms, I bunked with Cloud so I just had to roll over. "Hey, thanks for helping with organizing." I looked back.

"You did most the talking, I just chimed in."  
>"But you made good choices. Like giving Aeris the enemy skill. Now why did you do it"<br>"She has the best magic power out of us but we made her a supporter with Tifa with cure and heal, enemy skill will give her an offensive edge."  
>"See, your smarter than you act Nate." I grunted and closed my eyes.<p>

"But I disagree on one thing."  
>"What?"<br>"You have a more powerful magic ability than Aeris, you cast spells and never seem to tire out."  
>"So?"<br>"I'm just thinking how you could get that kind of power." I opened one eye and saw him looking at the ground.

"Something wrong?"  
>"Nathan, have you ever been to Shinra before you met us?" I sat up and thought my answer carefully.<p>

"No, that was the first time I had ever been to Midgar for me, I had never been to their headquarters until I tagged along with you."  
>"Did you know Hojo?"<br>"I never met him until then either." I sat on the edge of my bed.

"Whats with this Cloud."  
>"I'm...wondering about the Zolom battle, you completely changed in a split second and you have these ability's..." I got his reasoning, my curiosity would get eaten at if I had to keep that a secret and not know what it is.<p>

"I told you I snapped."  
>"What do you mean by snapped?" he sounded accusatory.<p>

"Cloud, sometimes people can't handle things, I know I never could handle having to take a Zolom on my own, so I let my body take over." tried to word it the experience the best I could.

"You were a completely different person though." I scratched my head. But an idea came in that fit the situation perfectly.

"You know I know a similar situations, you see...sometimes the only way to escape pain is to go somewhere where your mind can accept it, and it copes with it the best it can after that." He seemed to mole my words over.

"You have another personality?" I scoffed, though he was right on the nail I didn't want to hear it.

"You make it sound like I'm crazy."  
>"Don't forget I have experience in this Nathan." He said sternly, I conceded the argument.<p>

"Sometimes Cloud a person can't take pain or traumatic events, I happen to know a few comics where this happened and the people made a whole new person inside themselves just to find away to stop the pain."After that he started at me fore a few minutes before he muttered good night. My omitted lies being enough. I laid down and started to sleep. Thinking about why he would ask me now about what my involvement was with Shinra.

* * *

><p><strong>ATE<strong> "We must rest."  
>"No, we can continue longer."<br>"Mother you are still healing, you must stop and fully regenerate." Sephiroth stopped and sat down on a nearby rock. Jenova deciding to lay on the ground and hold its half of an arm.

"To think they destroyed me so easily." Jenova hissed. Since the growth of her head she had started to talk vocally instead of telepathically. He face exactly as it was five years ago.

"They used strategy, they lacked strength. It is nothing to concern yourself with mother."  
>"They will still be an annoyance my son."<br>"I can simply kill them if you wish mother."  
>"No, the puppet still has use." Sephiroth nodded. Not willing to argue with his mother.<p>

"And if you killed them then I won't get to see his progress." Sephiroth looked at his mother.

"You mean the man who effectively won the battle on the ship?" Jenova cringed for only a second before putting on a calm facade.

"He has grown, I can tell."  
>"Why do you have an interest in him mother? He is a lowly human just like the rest."<br>"You might not understand my son, but he is like me."  
>"I highly doubt a man you nearly killed is like you mother." He deapanned.<p>

"Patience Sephiroth, he will become powerful enough, and when he does he will be useful to us." "How can you be so sure?" "It will be just like that scientists theory of Reunion, he and I are too alike, he will come to us because of what is inside him as well as the puppet...you will see soon."

* * *

><p>AN Alright so ext time we are on our way to corel, now I will be opening up my first poll. because I can't decide weather Nathan should get out of being caught and thrown in prison or get stuck with the group. not this will be the week after nexts chappa. So i will make about four choices or less about how it should go. and since its turkey week I will definatly be on time for next weeks chap, till next time audience.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N

**NOTICE VERY IMPORTANT!**

okay guys so the poll only has a total of three people that have visited. Now the poll is on my page and the thing is that one of the choices will make me have to do ANOTHER poll so i would like to see where everyone stands. So this poll will be up until tuesday then the other poll will be made then that poll will be up until until Friday night. but that all depends on what the final choices are so go to my profile and vote please!

okay second note. feel like making a couple of shout outs to a few fan fictioneers out there because i feel really good right now

First off Saria19, who provides me with some of the more detailed reactions to my chapters and gives me ideas for what to do next. Your cool.

Then to those who actually have stayed rather consistent with my ff and post reviews for nearly every chappa which i do admire, lovleess an the living fantasy, little 101, and wingsong5555. You guys rock.

Then I would like to thank Ingness who is the reason I wanted to post this shout out. I am always skeptical about my writing and i always feel its lack luster compared to quiet a few fanfics out there. Yet here this person comes who had just joined FF and said i made a good fanfic in all the right words. Your awesome in my book bro.

and last but certianly not least I would like to thank the very first person who reviewed my fanfic, however they utilized the anonymous review feature and they will now be known to me only as a random fan. I don't know if your still reading, but it was you random fan who also helped me in keeping this train going.

so without further ado i give you chappa 14!

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><p>Ch 14<p>

"No way in hell you have never ate one!"  
>"I haven't even heard of it Nate."<br>"Its the greatest combination of peanut butter and chocolate ever!"  
>"Then why don't you just go back to Medeel where it is."<br>"You don't understand! How can you have not heard of a peanut butter cup Yuffie? The next thing your gunna say is Kool-aid doesn't exist!"  
>"cool...ade?"<br>"ARGH!" The next morning I had spent all my time before everyone continued traveling combing through the beach town, looking for anything sweet or from earth, but not a single product I had ever known existed here, Reeces, Gatorade, hell fucking even Heinz ketchup was just a figment of my imagination or as Yuffie said were stuff only in Medeel.

"I don't see what the big deal is Nate, its all just sugar and stuff." I looked her dead in they eye.

"I have been traveling for damn near a week without the joys of any of the "sugar and stuff " I used to have everyday till I met Cloud. The only thing that's made me forget this is the fact that I am on a company's hit-list, I have had multiple traumatic experiences, I helped save three, count'em, THREE lives from a horrible explosion, and I helped rescue two others. Now the only thing I ask is that I get my fucking favorite SUGARY STUFF so I can pretend my life has been normal thus far!"I walked away from a gaping ninja. You know I now realize how Tallahassee felt in Zombie Land when he was looking for that one twinkie...oh what I wouldn't give for a twinkie right now...

After many unsuccessful attempts at finding any reminder of home, with me even raiding the Shinra vacation house for hopes that it wasn't just full of items, everyone regrouped and set out towards the west. Yuffie looking a little down after what I said. But in all honesty its hard knowing everything you took for granted seemed to never exist. As much fun and thrilling it was to be in FF7 it didn't mean I would forget my real home...my mom, all my brothers, my favorite pets, hell I miss my school teachers.

"So Nathan what do you think?" I looked up.

"Huh?" Tifa shook her head.

"You didn't hear single word did you? Nathan this is important matters we're talking about."  
>"I space out okay."<br>"Just don't do it when we are talking about important things okay?"  
>"Yes mom." I heard a small giggle escape from Yuffie's lips before she put on a now weakened angry face when I looked back. Tifa sighed before explaining.<p>

"Cloud had wondered why Sephiroth was heading west."  
>"What do you mean?" Cloud slowed his pace so he was closer.<p>

"The Promised Land is a fictional concept that Shinra has been chasing for years, yet Sephiroth is just wandering around the continents."  
>"Maybe there is a certain way he has to get to the place, some kind of specified path or something." I said.<p>

"One does not simply walk into the Promised Land Nathan." Red said and I snorted.

"Something wrong?"  
>"Its nothing, I just remember a guy saying the same thing about something else and the exact opposite happened." He eyed me before I continued.<p>

"If that's the case then maybe he's looking for something." I said, might as well get these guys a little prepared for whats going to happen.

"What would he look for?" Aeris asked. I shrugged.

"Regardless, we need to keep moving, the only place we can go is a path through Mt. Corel." Cloud said and we kept walking. The only person who didn't participate in any conversation was Barret, but I could sympathize with the guy. We were all about to go into his old home and he was to blame for the incident that killed almost everyone in his town. I don't think I can do much for him though, he pushes everyone away when they get to Gold Saucer so I can't do much for him.

"Nathan." I look and see Cloud pointing over a hill. I look over and see a ton of those egg monsters just wandering around.

"Grangalans, only five but still dangerous."  
>"Cuz they have smaller ones inside them right?"<br>"Yes, but this actually could help us." I look at him.

"For what?"  
>"Since everyone now has new materia and has different roles in the group this will be a test run." He turned to the group.<p>

"Everyone get ready, their in the way so take them down like how we planned." Everyone prepped before running out at the egg monsters. Having to go over a hill though made it so we lost the element of surprise and the monsters started attacking right away with their spitting/spinning blades.

"Take them out before the multiply, if they do, take out the larger one and the little ones will die off." Cloud said. Everyone split off into groups of two with Cloud handling a monster by himself. It was one of the strategies he made us do.

_(flashback)_

"_Considering we won't always be fighting just one or two enemy's we need to split into teams that will work one each others weaknesses. Some of you won't have restore materia since we have so little gil, so this balance will help minimize how much healing we will have to do."_

_(End)_

I was paired with Barret since I did well with magic and he was a shooter kind of guy, but also we had the three basic materia of Lightning, fire, ice, and even earth to use against enemy's. The other pairs were Yuffie and Red and Tifa with Aeris. Barret started firing at the egg while I cast fire on it, the thing looked like it was made of porcelain but it took both hits with ease and shot blades at both of us. We both got out the way and switched tactics. Barret started charging an ice spell while I distracted the egg since it took him longer to cast than anyone in the group. I pulled out Fusion and went for a swipe bu t the egg some dodged. I then gripped it with both hands and started to swipe at it repeatedly, remembering another lesson from the previous nights planning session when Cloud started evaluating everyone individually.

_()_

"_Nathan, you are good with magic, and you think on your feet. Its helped you a lot lately but it can only get you so far. Tell me, why do you fight with your sword in the style you use?"  
><em> "_Its what feels right, I remember reading about a style where the first strike was drawing the sword so I got used to that"_  
>"<em>It is useful but what happened when you start just slashing with only one hand on your sword?"<em>  
>"<em>Its not as powerful?" He nodded.<em>

"_I want you to get used to using two hands on Fusion Nathan, you won't have the same feel or quite as much versatility, but your slashes will have a consistent amount of power behind them."_

_()_

"What the hell!" I looked back and saw Barret with a very angry look.

"My ice is missing...Yuffie!"  
>"I was gunna give it back!" She yelled as she swiped a smaller egg with her shuriken and ran over to him. He looked mad before he started focusing again. He made a large block and it fell on top of our egg creature. I sheathed my sword after seeing that everyone else was done fighting.<p>

"Good work everyone, we did it all right." Cloud called.

"The hell we did! the little thief had my materia!" Barret said pointing at Yuffie.

"I was borrowing it and I forgot to give it back!" She yelled.

"Quiet. We don't need to fight, you got it back. Now lets try to cover some more ground before it starts getting dark." We got a little more walking in before we had to stop at the beginning of the mountain path. I called first guard duty since I didn't want to be up in the middle of the night or early morning with little rest. Most of the time I had practiced using Fusion with both my hands. It really wasn't my style but Cloud didn't steer me wrong on how much power I could put behind each slash. I kept trying to see how I could do my Bankai attack but it would pull through. I was wondering almost my entire shift about why it didn't work since during guard duty I could pull an Air slash. However my time came up and I slept till Cloud got us all to pack our tents and move out. We started walking the rocky path until we ran into some man resting off the side.

"Hey, whats going on?" I asked.

"Whew. Hey, your actually talking to me." He said in between tired breaths.

"What is it?" Asked Cloud.

"I just passed a guy in a black coat back there." Everyone seemed to freeze.

" I tried to tell him it was dangerous up ahead, and he ignored me!"  
>"Sephiroth." Cloud said. Everyone seemed pretty psyched to go except Barret. I stayed near him while we started traversing the mountain path. We had passed by a Mako reactor with little trouble. We eventually got to the cart tracks and cliff from Barrets flash back and I saw him tense up really bad.<p>

"Something on your mind?" I asked?

"Huh?" He looked at me.

"Your really tense...is something wrong."  
>"No...I'm fine..." He sounded somber but I left it at that. We eventually got down to the area where the rail tracks seem to be one hundred feet in the air. Everyone took their time crossing over. I realized unlike the game monsters really couldn't do much here since they were so narrow. I picked up a transform materia and handed it to Nanaki since he had another status infliction one. I was somewhat bummed we couldn't climb down to get the items that we stuck on the side of the track, but falling that far wasn't on my priority list for the day.<p>

"Guys there's a fork." Tifa said.

"We'll split up. Aeris, Nathan, Red and Yuffie will go the lower path. Me, Barret, and Tifa will check what is on top." Cloud said. We split off into our groups. We went down but almost immediately ran into the draw bridge.

"I don't see a switch around here." Aeris said.

"It probably somewhere where Cloud and them will go. We just earned ourselves a break guys." I flopped onto the ground and used the bridge for back support. Soon enough Cloud got over to the lever and dropped the bridge.

"What do we do? Do we go ahead?" Asked Yuffie.

"Nah just let them catch up." Everyone went back to resting when Cloud and them came back.

"I guess we can rest, its almost sundown." Everyone started setting up their tents.

"Hey, who was in charge of food?" I asked.

" Because we are really low." I checked our travel packs and we only had maybe two peoples worth of food.

Cloud groaned. "No one picked up supplies while we were in Costa Del Sol?" Everyone seemed to have a duh moment.

"Guys we can't afford to make these mistakes! Let this be a lesson that if we don't keep supplies up we can't travel properly." Cloud scolded.

"Man you guys are wimps, I'll go find some food." Yuffie said, walking off.

"What? Where are you going to get food?" Tifa asked.

"I'm gunna go hunt. Be back in a jiff." She said continuing. Cloud shook his head and looked at me.

"Go keep an eye on her so she doesn't get any trouble."  
>"Why me? Reds her partner!" I just got comfortable too.<p>

"Do you think I forgot when I told you she is your responsibility." I got up grumbling and caught up with her. She was a little surprised but didn't say anything.

"What are we hunting?"  
>"Cokatolis, I saw a bunch earlier." We traveled Clouds path and ended up on on the hill looking around until we ended up inside a cave. Inside we saw a nest of chicks about the size of a small dog chirping away.<p>

"Aw damn it I knew this place looked familiar." I mumbled.

"Aww look at the little babies." Yuffie leaned down and stared at one.

"Yuffie we really need to leave." I said.

"Hold it Nathan, I'm looking at the... LOOK a treasure chest!" She ignored the birds now and went right up to the chest that was stuck in the back of the nest.

"Seriously? You just disturbed a nest!" I couldn't keep my voice down.

"Doesn't matter, these are all mine now." She said with a smile on her face carrying a bunch of phoenix downs.

"Great now lets get out of here!"  
>"No way I bet theirs a ton of treasure here!" She started searching the entire cave for stuff, however the only things that were worth a damn were the phoenix downs. "Aww no more treasure." She slumped onto the ground. I tried to pull her up.<p>

"Okay you got your shit now lets god before..." There was a small chirp behind me. Turning back I see a huge evil looking bird, it had the size of a Chocobo but the face of an Emu and it was ready to charge. I pushed Yuffie out the way and got rammed head on by the bird. It was like getting socked by a football professional and I had the wind knocked out of me.

"Nathan!" Yuffie pulled out her weapon and charged the bird. She got a good slash but the bird kicked her into the wall and started screeching. It tried to stomp on me but I rolled out the way fast enough to only get cut by its talons. I ran to the entrance only to see the bird try to pick at Yuffie who looked knocked out.

"Hey you overgrown chicken!" The Cokatolis looked at me and readied for another charge. It started running when I quickly moved to the side to let the thing run right off the edge of the cliff. I looked down and saw that it only got a few bruises and a screwed up wing.

"Well at least that did something." I jumped down and readied my blade when the bird tried to get me again with its claws. I drew Fusion with a slash and got the giant bird, but it caught my shirt and knocked me down, I hit the back of my head on the dirt and started to get dizzy, I got up as fast as I could and swung Fusion at the bird when it came up to my face and just blew some kind of smog into my face and dodged my attack. I started hacking and slashed around wildly. The bird kicked me in the side and knocked me down again. I got some of my vision and saw the bird ready to stomp me out again. I quickly lifted up my hand.

"Fry!" I focused on my fire materia when suddenly instead of the normal fireball it blew a large volley ball and hit the Cokatolis right in the head, but the fire spread through the whole bird, making it start running around trying to put the fire out. In the end it finally fell down and just started to roast. I got up and looked at my hand and saw that my fire materia now had a stronger looking flame inside of it.

"I leveled it up...Yes I did it! I leveled it up! Yuffie you have to...Yuffie!" I started climbing the cliff and got back inside the cave. Yuffie was exactly the same as she was when me and the bird fell down so I picked up one of the phoenix downs and made her drink it. Withing a few moments she started hacking and coughing.

"Awww what happened." She grumbled.

"That thing knocked you out luckily you found these so you'll be fine when we get back to camp." She tried to stand but immidetlly fell.

"I need a potion." She wined.

"Well to bad I didn't bring any."  
>"What! Are you an idiot! You always take potions when you do stuff like this." She started having a tantrum, but in her state she could only talk.<p>

"So why didn't you since there was a possibility I wasn't coming?" She shut up then since she couldn't think of a good rebuttal. I sighed and picked up her items. I handed her my pack and leaned down in front of her.

"Come on, I'll carry you."  
>"Nu uh, I'm perfectly fine until I'm healed."<br>"Without a potion that could take a day or so. Maybe you can get accounted with the chicks while I just take the charred remains of the bird back to eat. Now get on my back." After a few seconds she got up and fell on me. I walked out the cave and carefully trekked my way around the hill. But over time I could tell I was getting weaker because my body felt like it was getting stiffer and slower, more than a few times my joints would lock up. Eventually we got passed the bird but I fell because it felt like I gained a hundred pounds.

"What are you doin? Carry me!"  
>"Just...let me rest...I feel...really heavy..." Yuffie looked at me before she limped off herself and check under my shirt, her reaction told me it was bad.<p>

"Did you let the bird blow something into your face?" I nodded.

"You idiot that was its petrify smog! Your turning to stone right now!" I flipped over and saw my stomach. It was pure stone ingratiated into my skin. It flexed only a little with each of my breaths. I looked and saw it traveled to my legs and up towards my neck.

"We need to stop this, its amazing its this slow...how is that?"  
>"Less analyzing, more saving me from becoming a fucking a statue!"<br>"But I don't have any soft!" I grunted when I remembered a fact from the game.

"Cokatolis have soft, check it." She stumbled over to the bird and pulled out the one thing I really didn't want to see.

A needle.

"What is that?"  
>"Its soft, I just need to get you and you'll be alright." She was about to stab me when I rolled out the way.<p>

"I'm trying to save your life!" "Do it when I'm not looking that thing is long as shit!" She tried to get me again but I rolled. And this continued for about a minute. It must have been a hilarious scene, two injured people rolling around on the ground. Finally the stone fully enclosed my legs and Yuffie had me pinned down between her legs.

"Here we go." She stabbed my stomach and I felt it go through, however it wasn't as bad as I thought because she pulled it right out. I looked and saw the stone start to regress until it vanished completely.

"Thanks."  
>"Now that your done we need to get to camp." I got up and started carrying her again. We came up to the camp and everyone looked worried.<p>

"Are you two okay?" Aeris ran up.

"We had a bad run in with a Cokatolis mother, Yuffie got messed up so Aeris could you heal her? And sorry we couldn't find foo..." I looked and saw a plucked Cokatolis carcass roasting on the fire.

"Who is the dick I am about to fuck up for making me look like a wimp and idiot."  
>"It came up to the camp and we got it by surprise. No need to hurt anyone." Red said chewing on what looked like a leg but I'm not to sure of a giant birds anatomy. I sighed and sat down with Yuffie while she was being healed. Cloud handed me and her some meat and I ate it with glee. I really didn't care at the moment I was eating a giant bird but it tasted good enough. After eating me and Yuffie were stuck with first shirt since Cloud considered our encounter reckless and ill prepared. The fire cackled as we sat in silence. Healing from the previous fight.<p>

"Sorry." She looked at me.

"For what?"  
>"Yelling at you the other day."<br>"You say that now?"  
>"I was just stressed and seeing you like this kinda makes me feel guilty since I didn't pull you out when I cou.. oww!" She punched me in the shoulder.<p>

"Don't start that dumb stuff now." She shoved her backpack onto me.

"Whats this?"  
>"I found it in the item shop before we left, your drinks popular at Icicle Inn, that's why nobody heard about it...I got you something else too since you like sweets. I had to borrow Barrets materia though to keep it cool." Wait Yuffie got me something? Little thief Yuffie? That... is really nice.<p>

"You owe me fifty gil by the way." Awww I knew there was a catch. Well its the thought that counts. I opened the pack and took out the items. I ogled the can of soda and treat them for a bit before having a gigging fit.

"Hey whats so funny?" She yelled.

"Nothing...hahaha...its nothing, thanks Yuffie, you made my day. You can get some sleep, I'll keep watch the rest of the time." She yawned and went off inter her tent. I popped open the can and took a drink. My taste buds basically rejoiced when I downed the whole thing. I started eating my candy when I started laughing again.

"I never thought I'd be in final fantasy seven, and now here I am with a cold can of NARC Cola and sea salt ice-cream. Life somehow finds ways to surprise me still." I enjoyed the rest of my shift and went to sleep happy.

* * *

><p><strong>ATE<strong>

"So this is Cait Sith?" Rufus said. Eying the cat standing in front of him.

"Yep, that's me. So what do you need me to do boss?" Rufus allowed a brief chuckle. He knew Reeve was eccentric but he now realized how deep it really ran.

"I need you to infiltrate AVALANCHE and transmit their progress to us on a daily bases, any and all information is deemed important."  
>"Sir, are you sure that this is going to work? I highly doubt that they will simply just let him tag along." Said Tseng who was standing off to the side.<p>

"Hey, I can do this job no problem! Just you wait." The cat pointed at the Turk.

"I am still skeptical." Tseng said.

"I have doubts too, but as long as he becomes a part of the group then the objective is completed." Rufus said. The robotic feline climbed up his moogle and pulled out his microphone, he started giving it orders and it moved as he wanted it to.

"Head out to Gold Saucer, I'm sure the will have to pass though there, now I don't care how, but get into their group." The little cat saluted and went off. Rufus turned to Tseng.

"Now how is our other plan doing?"  
>"The Highwind is still being repaired. And the company helicopter can only go so far without having to stop off to be refueled."<br>"So the only decent mode to get around most of the continents is the Tiny Bronco."  
>"Which is still under captain Highwinds ownership."<br>"As I recall didn't Shinra give him the funds to build it?"  
>"Yes." Rufus smiled.<p>

"Then we are simply cashing in on one of our investments. We will have to move to Rocket town."  
>"It will take some time, the mountains will force us to refuel often."<br>"We'll leave for rocket town when we have enough Intel on AVALANCHE." Rufus said dismissively, hoping his plan would work so he could keep track of Cloud and the rest.

* * *

><p>The next day we packed up and moved out. The long rickety bridge took some time but we eventually pulled through and got on another mountain path. It wasn't long before we found a very run down looking tent city.<p>

"Wait here." Barret walked to the front of the group and was spotted by one of the workers in Corel. Everyone was a bit confused until one of the workers went up and hit hit, and what was worse was he just took it.

"Well lookey here. Never thought I'd see your face again." Said one of the men.

"Those people with you? I feel sorry for them, hanging around a death sentence like Barret." Said another.

"You got a lot of balls coming here. Its your fault North Corel is a garbage heap!" The third man spat at Barret who was simply looking at the ground. The whole group was angry that they treated him so bad. I just stood there with a sad look on my face.

"Why dontcha say something? Or did you forget what you did here already."  
>"...I'm sorry." Were all the words he could muster.<p>

"Shit, you ain't even worth the effort."  
>"Don't waste your time talking to that techno-freak!" All of them walked away and we all caught up to Barret.<p>

"You heard them...its my fault this town was...destroyed."  
>"How is that possible." Aeris asked. He shook his head.<p>

"It don't matter anymore. Whats done is done." We left on that note and looked around town, the whole place was dirty and depressing. And when we passed by people would scowl in our direction. Aeris even bought some cheap bangle from one of the shop owners. I could see the sympathy on her. Eventually we came up to the lift.

"Barret what happened?" Said a concerned Aeris.

"Sorry." He said.

"Why is everyone angry?" asked Cloud.

"My hometown used to be around here."  
>"What do you mean 'used to'?" Asked Red.<p>

"Aint here no more, heard it got buried four years ago." He seemed to space out.

" But how could those people say though terrible things?" Aeris said.

"And its my fault...all my fault." He told use about North Corel. When it was a small coal mining town. He talked about how Scarlet came and promised the town would get better if they allowed Shinra to build a Mako reactor. At the time the only person who was against building the reactor was Barrets friend Dyne. He eventually caved and the reactor was built. Everyone including Barret thought it would make their lives easier.

"It happened when Dyne and I were out of town for a few days. Shinra troops burned down the whole place. My friends...my relatives...everything."  
>"Shinra troops? Why!" Cloud yelled.<p>

"There was an explosion at the reactor, they said it was done by a rebel faction." Everyone was shocked.

"That's Terrible!" Said Tifa.

"Well I guess that's true. But more than Shinra, I couldn't forgive myself...never should have gone along with building the reactor." Tifa walked up and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Don't blame yourself. We were all fooled by the promises that Shinra made back then too."  
>"But that's why I get so pissed off! Not only did they take advantage of me, but I lost my wife...Myrna, too."<br>"It would have only been you two against the whole village, I doubt it would have changed a thing Barret. You were looking out for your family." I told him.

"Hey everyone! If you want to get to the Gold Saucer then hurry up!" Shouted the conductor.

"Lets get on." Cloud was the first one in.

"Dyne was my best friend. We was close as ever since we was kids." He walked on.

"I never knew, he never said anything." Tifa said.

"Its hard, he blames himself for being fooled. Its a wound time will take a while to heal." I said.

"I'm not sympathizing with Barret, he never should have trusted Shinra." Said Yuffie who walked into the cab next. The rest of use filed in I looked off in the distance and saw a few flashing lights. Remembering Barret would have face his past very soon.

"What are you thinking?" I see Red.

"I got a feeling something off is about to happen."

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><p>Remember to Vote! till next week<p> 


	15. Chapter 15

A/N alright guys we have our votes and i think i did well enough on this chap. Also I want to notify people i am looking for a beta reader since one of my major problems is my spelling in here. I was told nicely by one of my reviewers that I need to work on that so anyone up for helping me with this would be appreciated.

so now without anything else the chappa that had two polls.

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><p>Ch 15<p>

Its the greatest thing I have ever seen. The lights...the cheering...the loud obnoxious music only a theme park would play.

The Gold Saucer was now hands down my favorite place ever. The lift ride just couldn't go fast enough for me to contain my excitement.

"WOW look at all the lights!" Yuffie was in the same state I was in. She was bouncing all over the trolly though.

"It looks amazing!" Aeris was gazing out into one of the tree like bulbs of the structure. Tifa was looking out with Aeris. Cloud and Red seemed impassive, and Barret sat by himself staring at the ground, obviously irritated about what was going on.

"We're not here to play, we are looking around for Sephiroth." Cloud announced. However it didn't deter me from thinking about all the things I could do here...until I get arrested that is...come to think of it how long did it take before everyone got blamed for Dynes actions? In the game it took a very short time if Cloud went straight for Cait Sith and then to the battle plaza. But looking at how huge this place is I'm not even sure that will happen withing the week.

The trolly came to a halt and everyone exited. I looked at the huge moogle head and then around the area to see a man walking around in a fat Chocobo costume and then the attendant at the front entrance waving to us enthusiastically.

"Welcome to the Gold Saucer, are you all together?" Cloud nodded his head.

"Oh good, our group rate is 3000 gil for all of you to be here for a day, but you can purchase a lifetime pas for 30,000 if you like." Half the groups jaw dropped at the latter mentioned price. I however did the math and since this was probably another group deal then...okay divide by 2.5...then 7...That's like 1700 bucks per person! Holy shit that's high! But considering this place I could believe that.

"Alright everyone lets see how much we have." Cloud said. Pooling all of our travel as well as personal spending money we kept it came out to 4152 gil. I still shuddered at seeing these guys pick coins and bills out of monsters like it was an everyday occurrence. Cloud gave her the 3000 and split the rest between everyone as equal as possible.

"Thank you very much." She handed everyone some temporary pass cards.

"Now if you leave Gold Saucer your tickets will become invalid. Now here at the Gold Saucer, there are many places where you must pay with GP, just think of it as money you only use here. But it can only be redeemed at Wonder Square or the Chocobo races, your limit is 10,000, please enjoy yourselves. We all went through the entrance and came up too the beginning area. Aeris was jumping for joy.

"Wow lets have fun!" Cloud looked at her before she turned. "I know this isn't the right time to do this, but we deserve to relax today." She went up to Barret and tried to lighten him up only for him to stomp away.

"Hey Barret cheer up."

"...I ain't in no cheery mood. Just leave me alone."

"Suit yourself." Aeris ran up to Cloud pulling on his shoulder. Tifa went up and whispered pointing at Barret about how harsh she was acting. Aeris just brushed it off and ran back to the large man.

"We're going to go play." Barret turned and basically exploded right in her face.

"SO PLAY! Messing around and shit! Don't forget we're after Sephiroth!" He then ran off and jumped down the wonder Square slide or tube thing.

"I think he's mad." I face palmed.

"He'll be fine, he seems to be doing a little better now." Tifa said.

"Yes because exploding is way better than not talking." I chimed.

"Just let him blow off some steam, he'll be fine." Cloud said looking around the colorful room

"Alright, I guess we can take a short break while we look for some clues. Stay in touch until then." Cloud went to the haunted hotel tube with Aeris close behind.

"I wonder what this place has?" Tifa said. I walked over to the wonder Square tube and looked down, seeing nothing but a dark tunnel.

"I don't know about you guys but I'm going to play some games, maybe win me some prizes, later" I waved and fell backward into the slide, feeling the rush of wind as I was shoot through what seemed like a frictionless surface, then after around a minute I landed on a soft pad and looked up to see another attendant who was next to a line of tubes.

"Welcome, where would you like to go?" I shrugged when she pointed at a map next to her. Looking at it I found that the wonder Square actually had multiple gaming stations. It made sense considering the place was to big for the bunch of small areas in the game.

"I'll go to the main attraction room in Wonder Square" She pointed to the first tube on her left. I got in and she pulled a lever, I was sucked up and sped through another tunnel until I shot out and found myself at the wonder Square from the game. I hunched over and tried to get my bearings, I wasn't expecting to be shot around like a piece of mail. Looking around I immediately spotted a cat on top of a large stuffed moogle and ran to the nearest pillar to hide behind.

"Just my luck, he's here before we are." I mumbled and looked back. I saw him talking to people saying he could tell their fortunes. I was tempted to get mine told but I really didn't want to be the one to have Cait Sith tag along with, he is Reeve...in a way. Actually I never understood that, Reeve controls Cait with his own special power. Yet Cait has his own personality, hell he has Scottish accent and last I heard Reeve he sounded like a regular businessman. Right when the cat looked to another potential victim of his vague fortunes ran for the arcade, jumping onto a ladder leading to the higher platform and slowly hugging the wall making sure the cat couldn't see me. When I was inside the first arcade room I looked around, the sounds of buttons being pressed and the buzzes from the machines. Going deeper I found the room I was looking for. I went to the back and started playing Mog House.

Honestly it was the easiest game in this whole place, feed the thing a nut and get him to fly. At least that's how it was before I was in the game. Now apparently there was more to it. You had to impute multiple buttons in the right order to make him fly, he had about four different reactions to eating nuts compared to his two "I want more" and the "I'm full." The extra was him getting sleepy which made it so you had to wake him up and another where he was hungry but didn't want to eat so you had to play a mini-game to force him to eat it. It took me a full fifteen minutes to beat the game because of the new stuff and the fact I had this feeling I was being watched. Finally I won the game when I heard a guy cheer behind me. I looked at it was some nerd.

"That was great! You beat the game on your first try! I could never pull that off!" I sweat-dropped. Seeing this guy this into the game in real life is kind of embarrassing. "Thanks." I said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some gold coins.

"Here, you did really good." I took the thirty gp coins and pocketed them. I left the arcade and looked to see Cait Sith was nowhere to be found. So I hoped into the speed Square tube and chose the main attraction location. I eventually came out of a tunnel to see Tifa.

"Yo!" I waved.

"Nathan, have you seen Barret?" I shook my head. She sighed.

"Hey he'll take care of himself, he's a big guy."  
>"I know but he at least needs someone to keep him out of trouble. Didn't you notice him in Wonder Square?"<br>"No, I went to the main attraction rooms, he must have gone to the smaller stuff." She started rubbing her forehead.

"Just let him have time to himself Tifa, he came to a place that blames him for its destruction, hell he even blames himself. He needs time Tifa, everyone has their skeletons."  
>"Okay I get it." She conceited. I walked off to the long tunnel.<p>

"Where are you going?"  
>"I'm going to see whats so awesome about this laser coaster thing."<br>"But you need gp." I help up a handful of coins.

"Where did you get those."  
>"The way I always hoped to get money easy, playing games. Later Teef." I waved and walked down the tunnel. Coming out I saw the line completely empty and walked up to one of the attendants.<p>

"Hey I want to ride this."  
>"That will be five gp sir." I gave him the coins.<p>

"Alright, the laser controls will be right in front of you, their easy too. Just shoot it like you would a regular gun. Enjoy yourself, and if you make it on to the high score board you get a prize, now I need you to leave your weapon and materia here, safety precautions you see." I nodded and gave him Fusion. and got into the first passenger seat. I strapped on the metal thing over my head until it clicked and held my waist down.

"Alright have a nice...oh you want on to, sir do you mind if someone else gets on?" I tried to look over but the seat blocked my view and the place holder made it so my neck couldn't twist well.

"Sure. I could use an extra set of hands to get on the board." I heard a few clicks behind me and the coaster started up. I held onto the turret in front of me ready to aim. When we exited the dark tunnel I was looking at everything in awe. The welcome sign had fireworks explode behind it and looking out the side of the coaster I saw the animated rocks as well as ghost and planes. I held onto the gun and aimed at my first ghost. Pulling the trigger I saw a blue light come out the gun and the ghost explode into pixels, my school appearing on the dashboard.

"This is so cool!" I started shooting ghosts left and right, however I didn't take into account that I was on a roller coaster at the same time. So at times I would feel the G forces tugging at my face while I would try to hit something. Lucky for me the extra person helped at these times and nail almost every ghost, plane, rocket, or any other moving object. I remembered the extra stuff like the giant icicles or the cacti so I would focus on them for extra points. After a few minutes it got to the end with the giant UFO just flying around.

I yelled to the guy just to tap the trigger to hit it with as much laser as possible. Although me and the guy were doing that we didn't have enough time to take down the giant flying saucer and were shot past the big flying ship and into the stopping point. I looked down at the counter and saw we had 3580 points. It was decent, at least I would get a prize. The attendant came and unbuckled my bar and I jumped out and stretched.

"Hey dude you did good, but can I get the prize? I really want that..." My eyes bugged out when I saw the man in front of me.

"Sure you can have the prize yo."

* * *

><p><strong> ATE<strong>

Cloud was starting to think he had a magnet for strange people to follow him. Tifa and Barret were normal but he had Nathan, then Red, Yuffie, and now a giant stuffed moogle following him. Meeting Cait Sith was a little odd, after all what kind of fortune teller follows you just to see what his fortune was. Then again it was a little cryptic. He even tried to tell the talking cat about how they were being pursued by Shinra, and the thing just brushed it off and said he could defend himself.

"So where are we going?" Ask the cat in a very thick accent Cloud couldn't seem to place.

"I think we should look for Barret, we can't find anything about Sephiroth, so we need to move on."  
>"Well then where should we look?" Aeris asked. "Lets look in battle Square, we haven't checked there yet." All of them went through the tubes and were eventually directed to a few tunnels. When they arrived the first thing Cloud noticed was a Shinra guard posted in front of the entrance fall.<p>

"What!" Cloud ran up to the body and checked his pulse. "Dead."

"What! Why?" Aeris asked. Cloud looked at the body then the building. He sprinted for the top. Aeris soon followed along with Cait. Inside the Square was even worse that what happened to the MP outside. There were more body's and blood riddled most of the floor.

"Was this Sephiroth?" Cloud ran up to another body and his eyes widened.

"No...these are bullet wounds...all of them were shot, and Sephiroth would never use a gun. Clouds ears perked up when he heard someone groaning behind him. He looked and saw that the attendant behind the counter was just barely moving. He went and tried to hold her up, only to see the multiple bullet wounds she had.

"Hey, what happened?" Cloud asked. The woman struggled to answer him.

"A...m-man...with a g-gun...on his arm..." She let out a breath and fell limp onto the counter.

"It can't be!" Aeris said. Thinking exactly what Cloud was. Barret would never kill for no reason.

"Hold it right there and stay quiet" Cloud looked and saw the overly muscular man that he had talked to come into the area with some personnel with. He looked around at the body's until his eyes rested on Cloud.

"Did you do this?"  
>"No it wasn't use!" Cloud defended.<p>

"Hurry and run! Its going to get ugly." Cait Sith made way for the arena. Cloud cursed under his breath when the cat and then Aeris ran off. Only to make his argument useless with Dio yelling for his men to get them. He followed the two until they were in the middle of the arena. Looking back he saw Dio.

"That's as far as you go."  
>"Wait listen to..." Cloud tried to say, that is until Cait Sith interrupted.<p>

"Cloud..." He looked back and saw a large machine come into the room with sights on him. He turned and two more jumped into the arena.

"We didn't kill anyone! We just got here!" Aeris was trying to say. The machines coming closer.

"Take them to the prison." Dio ordered and walked off. Cloud was soon restrained by the machine. He couldn't reach for his sword, and even if he could he didn't want to hurt anyone innocent only to be convicted of another crime.

"Sir, there were more people in his group." Said one of the personnel.

"Find them and throw them in as well. This is more than a one man job." Clouds eyes widened as the order was given. The entire group was about to be thrown in prison for what they didn't do. However he couldn't do anything. He just stayed still as he was carried off.

* * *

><p>"Sure you can have the prize yo." The red haired man said with my sword strapped to his back with a apologetic looking attendant next to him. I couldn't believe Reno was here. The only person that was part of Shinra here was supposed to be Cait.<p>

"How bout you and me take a walk. And no funny business, you don't have your flaming glove, sword, or your materia. So if you know whats good for you you'll comply." I clenched my fist. He had me right where he wanted me. I nodded and went over to the prize counter, the worried attendant looking at me and the Turk.

"Let him have his prize, I ain't that cruel yo." The attendant went under the counter and seemed worried at giving me my prize. I realized why when she gave me a six foot long blade complete with sheath and display holder. I looked back and saw Reno's eyes widen and him pull out his stun rod. I took the sword from the display piece and tossed it to him. He caught it and looked at me.

"Show of good faith. Now what do you want." I said.

"Just to talk to you, nothing that will cause you or your group problems." He said with sincerity. I sighed and he made me start walking out of Speed Square. He pushed me through the tunnel making me take the tubes to Event Square, however when we went through multiple men showed up. "Hey what the hell is going on." Reno said.

"Sir, this man was with a group of people who murdered multiple attendants. Please step aside so we can apprehend him." Wait Dyne already came through? I thought it would take longer than that. I really didn't want to get thrown in though.

"Now just hold on I need to talk to this guy here." Reno argued.

"Sir, we don't want any trouble, just let us take him into custody and you go on your way." Reno grumbled and reached into his coat. He held up a card for the guards to see.

"This man being held by Shinra now, anyone that has a problem with that answers to the Turks, that good yo?" The main man took a look at the card and nodded his head before walking off with the rest of the group. Reno turned back to me.

"You guys can't keep yourself outta trouble can ya?" Reno snickered.

"Lets just get this over with, I have questions myself." Going into the tubes we were shot into one of the sub areas not in the game and ended up in a crowded food court kind of area. We kept walking until he made me sit down inside one restaurant in a corner booth, we away from prying ears. We sat down and a waitress came by but Reno waved her off saying he'd order later. I was glaring at him the entire time.

"What?"  
>"Why are you here?" I said.<p>

"Oh come on, aren't you glad to see me." He joked. I didn't find it funny.

"Well you being here complicates a few things for the group." I said. Why is he here? He should be investigating somewhere else. This is not how everything is supposed to go.

"Calm down I already told ya I'm not going to cause anyone any problems, I just need to speak with you. This situation actually works out for me."  
>"How did you find us." I asked.<p>

"I was sent with someone else." I thought about Cait Sith. But that doesn't explain why he was here. It wasn't something that was part of the game. This irritated me since I had little knowledge to go by. Then again his business is with me so my being here is what changed this. He reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He handed it to me and I looked it over. I realized it was the employment form that I had given them back in Midgar. I raised an eyebrow.

"What do you want me to do with this."  
>"Finish it of course."<p>

...

"Run that by me again." "Shinra is willing to over look your past crimes to give you a chance at starting a decent job in our offices." He said with a straight face. My jaw almost dropped at the offer. This was something that didn't make any sense. Why would they want me?

"Now what makes you think I would join you?" I asked defensively.

"We do offer a lot of cool stuff to people who really interest us, after all you have caught our attention." Reno said in a business like manor, though still slipping in his casual tone. I was shocked at this. I tried to process Shinra looking over everything I did to have me. Honestly what brought this on?

(A few days earlier. Junon Harbor )

"Who called it? I did, and I have bragging rights." Tseng sighed as he sat at his desk in Shinra's ocean side headquarters . He had hoped Reno would have just skimmed through the reports sent in. However when he noticed that they had priority over other reports he actually read in detail the ship incident. He had been bugging him for the last twenty minutes about it.

"Could we please stay on topic?" Tseng said. Covering his annoyance.

"Yeah yeah. What did you want yo?" Reno leaned back in his chair. "The president has recently decided to send in a spy to AVALANCHE, I hope you read that report?" "huh? A spy?" Tseng closed his eyes, of course everything else went out the window the minute other reports didn't have what he wanted.

"Your lucky you have secretary's, if you managed all of your reports the Turks would never have a second in command."  
>"Whats the point in reading about stuff that doesn't need my attention yo?" Reno said.<p>

"To keep yourself informed so when something involving them happens and you get called on you know what is happening."  
>"Can we just get through this, I want to go get a drink and see the town." Tseng passed him a piece of paper.<p>

"Unfortunately you won't be able to do that." Reno sat up and looked at the paper.

"This is that Nathan guys employment form."  
>"That's correct." Tseng said.<p>

"Well what do you want me to do with this?"  
>"Get him to complete it of course." It took about a minute before Tseng's words sunk into Reno's head.<p>

"This the prez's spy idea?" Tseng shook his head. "No. in fact I am a little skeptical Rufus' plan will work, it is almost too simple. Its to have Reeve's toy infiltrate as an ally and report back when ever possible." Reno looked like he was thinking about the situation.

"So what am I supposed to do?" He said sounding a little interested.

"We are sending you along with the doll, you are to make contact with Mr. River and try to convince him to agree to be an employee of Shinra."  
>"And that makes more sense?"<br>"Reno have you read the report on Mr. River?" Tseng asked. The red head rubbed the back of his head. Tseng sighed again.

"From what information we could gather, unlike his companions he has absolutely no connection to Shinra, positive or negative." Tseng paused to let his words work though Reno's head.  
>"None?" Tseng shook his head.<p>

" Rufus believes he may be an old experiment of Hojo's much like Strife, considering his magic capability's that you had reported on as well as the security tapes from HQ, that isn't too far fetched, but the Science Departments doesn't have any files on him, it took Rufus a while before he even found Strife's records. But none the less, since he doesn't have any known connection or recollection of experimentation, and posses great scientific knowledge we could possibly bribe him into our hands."

"What gave you the idea to send me? I'm the one that's fought the kid." Reno argued.

"He hasn't shown to much hostility to you, and the encounters that have happened he acted rather light heated when you were mentioned." Tseng explained.

"Still doesn't explain why you would send me."  
>"Unlike Rude, myself, and Elena, he has a sense of familiarity with you, and even after the tower its been hard for the rest of us to not here about how much you want to get back at him." Reno looked down at the paper, then sighed.<p>

"How long till I get sent in."

(end)

"Now look I know we've had some tough times between us but if you sign this it will all blow over." I looked at Reno in disbelief, for them t think this was even a good idea...they must not have thought Cait Sith would make it this time. I passed back the paper.

"It wouldn't blow over for everyone else." I said. Humoring their plan.

"If they are willing to stop tailing Seph, I'm sure Rufus can pull some strings so the public will forget about the tower incident, and the rest of the army will be off your backs."  
>"If I recall we actually saved a lot of people, aren't the accusations on them saying it was Shinra MPs that took it down?" I said. Reno grumbled.<p>

"That may be dude, but its only a small amount to the rest of the city wanting AVALANCHES blood." He replied. I thought about my next set of questions.

"Why were you even given this mission?" I asked. Thinking through what scenarios led to this.

"The higher ups recognize how you could be a useful asset, considering you have a 'clean' record with us." I looked at him when he mentioned my record. He wasn't implying he knew that I didn't technically exist, but a clean record...what about everyone else? I thought for a minute before answering.

"By record you mean my past, as far as you guys know there haven't been any incidents that involve me, while everyone else in the group has had something happen do to Shinra's greed and politics."  
>"Your just to damn smart for your own good, you know that?" He grumbled.<p>

"I wouldn't sign the rest of that paper no matter what you offer. Even if you offered me a seat with the executives and full protection with the worlds greatest pay." He looked at me a little irritated before signing and taking back the paper.

"I told Tseng this was a dumb idea." He stood up.

"So what are you going to do to me?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Tseng was confident that his plan would work better than that dumb doll. He is not gunna like this. My orders are to let you go, but the next time we meet I wont hesitate to beat your ass, though that may be a while..." He threatened. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, then smiled.

"I highly doubt that, you guys will just follow us around after all." He looked at me funny.

"What do you mean?"  
>"I know more than you could imagine Reno, now while you will be getting information it will be futile eventually." I got up and took my stuff back.<p>

"Now if you'll excuse me I have to help my friends out of jail. If everything goes good then it should be only one Chocobo race for Cloud, unless I messed up again." I muttered out loud.

"What are you taking about." I started walking off.

"Rambling, until next time Reno." I left the area and told one of the attendants about my situation. I was guided by them until I came up to Dio in his main office in an employees only section of the huge building.

"Isn't this the kid who was under Shinra's arms?" He asked. I walked up front.

"I just had business with them, however you got this all wrong, my friends are innocent." I pleaded.

"And why should I trust you." He asked.

"Listen they would never hurt innocent people. I know about the jail under Gold Saucer. Isn't there a possibility that a prisoner could have escaped?"  
>"The prison under Gold Saucer hasn't been broken out off for a long time kid." I rubbed my head.<p>

"I can vouch for every one of my friends."  
>"I should just throw you in with the rest of them."<br>"What will it take to convince you?" I yelled.

"You can't. The information I have says that it was a man with a gun attached to his arm that killed those people." I got an idea right there.

"I bet you have at least one man in that prison with the exact same injury, show me your criminal list." He stared me down but I kept my gaze at him.

"Well you heard the boy, get Coates on a line. Lets see if the kids right." It was a few uncomfortable minutes before Dio was handed a PHS.

"Mr. Coates. I wanted to be informed. How many men with guns on their arms do we have in the prison at this moment." It was a few seconds before his eyes widened a little.

"That trouble maker has one too? He has been causing quite a commotion in the prison., tell me did you meet the newcomers? Yes the other one with a gun arm...He said he would do what?..." He kept talking to the guy on the other line. I vaguely remember the Coates guy who sent you up to the Chocobo races for prisoners to get out or something. If I'm listening correctly then Barret should be or going to fight Dyne.

"Keep me informed on the situation." Dio closed the phone and looked at me.

"Your lucky kid. It seems one of our residents has been causing more trouble lately. Same injury as your friend." I sighed in relief.

"However, rules are even if they aren't guilty the only way for them to get back up is to win a Chocobo race."  
>"I have every bit of faith in my friends." I said. He just nodded in acknowledgment. I was held in the room since everyone wasn't fully innocent. It wasn't until about a couple hours later Dio received another phone call.<p>

"Your friends are innocent. I have claims bout the trouble maker sneaking out at one point. And a few people saying your friend is innocent. Your all clear, its just the race matter we have to worry about."  
>"Whats the problem?" I asked.<p>

"Your friends still need to go through the basic registration system, as well as a handler..."  
>"Couldn't you provide someone to help them out?" I asked.<p>

"hmmm...I do know one person who could help your friends. She is one of our better handlers and she would be willing to help them." He dialed a number and started talking to someone again, it was only a few minutes before he looked at me again."  
>"You may go, meet a woman named Ester in the Chocobo racing lounge. You can help your friends then. I'm sorry for my rash behavior. I hope that I can make it up to you and your friends." He held out his hand. I shook it.<p>

"I may have a few suggestions." I said with a smile.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N I forgot to mention this last chapter, but I am surprised no one got the NARC cola reference. I'm not a one game man, one of my other favorite series was MGS and I always wanted to taste the soda Drebin would take.

I have some important things coming up so I may have another late release next week, but it depends on if I solve some problems or not. Plus, I now have a beta reader, Saria19 said she would help so I sent an invite and now she will be helping with the sentence problems I have, so thank her if the story starts to flow.

* * *

><p>Ch 16<p>

Cloud felt like the planet was out to mess with him. He was thrown in jail and had to help his friend confront one of his old companions because it was really him who killed everyone, and now he was volunteered, much like Junon, to win a Chocobo race to gain their freedom. He wasn't all that afraid of losing, he had ridden a Chocobo in the past, and the birds even when wild seemed fairly tame under his hands. However, he was noticing a pattern with these situations.

"Cloud, we'll wait down here while you go win the race and get us out of here," said Barrett.

"You're right, Cloud should do it!" He sighed when he heard Tifa chime in as well.

"Alright, have you decided?" Everyone looked at the shady man known as Mr. Coates and nodded.

"All you need now is a manager...and to register...and a Chocobo."

"Hello, I happened to hear your story." Cloud turned to the door to see a rather funny looking woman. Her dress was bright pink with a large yellow ribbon on her waist. She also wore a lot of blush as well as a thick line of eyeliner.

"Ester?" Coates asked, obviously surprised.

"I'll be their manager," she said with a smile.

"Well I have nothing against it but... never mind. This is Ester, she may look funny, but theres no better manager in the races." Hearing, this Ester's face puffed.

"That's so rude; I'll have you know people like my makeup!" She then turned to Cloud.

"Anyway it's nice to meet you Cloud, I have heard you're a very nice person." He raised his eyebrow.

"And how do you know that?" He asked.

"You have a very good friend; he is very nice and tried very hard to get you all out." Just then the door opened again to a face Cloud could actually welcome.

* * *

><p>"Nathan!" Tifa shouted. I smiled and waved.<p>

"Yo guys, how's it going?"  
>"Where the hell have you been! Everyone else was thrown in here, how the hell did you stay out!" Barret shouted.<p>

"Ease up dude! I didn't exactly have it nice; hell one of the Turks had me while you guys were down here." That seemed to make Barret shut up.

"How are you here then?" Cloud asked.

"Listen I'll fill you guys in later. Now I believe Ester here was going to help us out." Cloud accepted my response and nodded.

"Well Cloud, I'll send you up with Ester and him. They'll fill you in on the details." Cloud and I followed Ester outside and into the large base of Gold Saucer. We went past some security and were inside the elevator going to the racing tracks.

"So Cloud, what went on down there?" I asked. He explained his day in prison. Barret explaining his past more, Dyne apparently being alive and being the one who killed everyone, and how Barret had to kill his former best friend.

"So that's what happened, I'll talk to Dio directly. You just concentrate on the race." Ester said. Cloud looked back at me.

"What about that Turk, were you hurt?" He asked. I shook my head.

"He interrogated me basically, and tried to bribe me, then left."

"Bribe for what?"

"Me to rat you guys out," I said bluntly. "Don't worry, you guys are some of my best friends, I would never think of ratting you out." I smiled. He just nodded and looked back at Ester.

"So who do I have to race? Other people who want out of prison?"

"Nope, there are many types of Chocobo jockeys, not just criminals." I heard a small groan at that. Having to race professionals probably lowered his confidence.

"Some people compete for fame; some people do it for money, some for glory. Then there are the people like you."

"Who was most likely voted by everyone else to come up here!" He sent small glare my way.

"And why didn't you try to ride them so we could all be leaving now?" I snorted.

"I have never ridden a Chocobo in my life, like hell I'll waste my time losing races while we have our fearless leader to do that for me!" I know I have ridden horses before, but I was skeptical on those two concepts being close considering one is four legs while the other has two...you know, come to think of it, does Gaia have horses? I haven't seen any at farms with other regular animals. Man, that's a little freaky, having known an animal that didn't exist here is kind of odd.

"Do you need me to teach you about Chocobos?" Ester asked.

"No, I'll do fine by myself." Man I wanted to hear what the tutorial sounded like in real life. Soon enough we stopped on the jockey lounge. Cloud walked out along with me.

"Thanks Ester, you're amazing for helping us out." She smiled.

"It's not a problem Nathan, it was nice meeting you as well. Not many people compliment my make up."

"You complimented her makeup?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah and?

"You complimented her so you could help me here, didn't you?" He said just loud enough for me to hear while Ester was still in the elevator.

"Could I'm hurt you'd think. Let me tell you a story, I used to know this girl Cloud, her name was Bittercup and she wore this makeup that made her look as pale as a ghost during the day time, but she liked to walk around at night, and it really shined during full moons and stuff. Moral of the story is- it makes her stand out, and I like people that stand out, why do you think I'm with you?"

"Why are you here anyway?" He asked. I rubbed the back of my head.

"I kinda...tried to earn a few extra gil in the betting pools."

"You were going to place all your gil on me, huh?" He made it sound more like a statement than a question.

"Just take it as I know you are going to win!" I smiled. He just sighed again before looking around the room. I noted the four jockeys sitting at the table playing a game of poker I was tempted to join, before the one next to the mini bar walked up to Cloud.

"You new?" Cloud just nodded in reply.

"Hey Joe." Ester said.

"Well hey Ester, looking pretty as usual." She giggled.

"Today must be a good day getting this many compliments." She turned back to us.

"This is Joe guys, one of our top jockeys."

"Nice to meet you," He said tipping his hat. "If you're with Ester then..."  
>"Yep, Cloud here is an up and coming jockey, only been down here a day and he's and already here." Joe was very surprised.<p>

"What?...I see. SO, what did you do down there? Wait, never mind, not supposed to ask about the past here...but that's pretty interesting. I have a feeling we'll meet again." He seemed to look at both of us before he walked off. A little odd, but not really anything worth thinking about.

"I'm going to check on the Chocobo, you guys just wait here a while. Nathan when Cloud enters to race I'll escort you back to the top." Ester walked off. Cloud just went up to one wall and leaned against it. I looked around the flashy room until I found a red materia lying in the corner of the floor. I picked it up and walked over to Cloud. "Dude, look." His eyes actually widened.

"How is it you keep finding these summons?"

"Trade secret Cloud, maybe I'll tell you one day. Now listen I kind of need you to win this race on your first try."

"I thought you said you weren't able to make any bets."

"Well I didn't, but I convinced Dio if you win on your first try to give us some neat stuff dude." He sighed.

"Why are you sighing? This is a total win for us."

"I really don't approve how you seem to gamble so carelessly."

"Cloud, gambling implies that there is a chance of not getting what you want, and all the times I have bet, have I lost?" He opened his mouth only to close it a second later, trying to think of bets I'd lost.

"I'd hate to bet against you." He simply said. I smiled and heard a bell ring signaling the jockeys to get to their rides.

"You're up dude, give them a show!" I patted his back and he just shook his head. He talked to Ester before heading in. She walked up to me.

"So do you want to watch him?" I shook my head.

"Nah, he'll win, I'm sure. I want to go see if Dio is going to hold up his end of our deal though."

"Well he's extremely busy right now; he is handling the backfire from the shootings." I nodded. Guess Dio has real world problems instead of just strutting around the park.

"You're pretty confident he'll win." She said.

"He's a natural, plus with that head of hair the birds will think he's a part of the flock!" I heard her giggle.

"It must be interesting to have a friend like you. He seems a little cold and yet you are an open book."

"Cloud looks that way, but he's just an awkward kid. Give him time and he'll warm up to you eventually." I replied. I heard a bell again.

"What it's over already?"

"Chocobo races rarely last longer than five minutes, considering how fast they are." Ester walked back out the door and came back in with Cloud in tow.

"You won, congratulations you're home free!" Ester said. I looked and saw Cloud was a bit stiff. Bumpy ride I guess.

"Oh, and the owner told me to give you this letter if you won." She handed Cloud an envelope. He opened it and I looked at the writing.

_Boy, if you're reading this letter, then you must have won, and won a victory I'm sure you earned. I heard about Dyne from Ester. Now that you are victorious, you and your friends will receive a full pardon, and you will all be set free. By way of apology your other friend has convinced me to allow you a stay in the haunted hotel; also I have prepared a few gifts for your travels. Sorry I couldn't tell you this in person. I am a very busy man._

_Sincerely, Dio _

"A gift?" Cloud asked.

"You'll get it in the morning; it's actually starting to get late, so you should turn in." Ester said. He nodded and looked back at the letter. Apparently Dio had met Sephiroth and noted that he was heading south towards Gongaga.

"Sephiroth," He hissed.

"I guess this is goodbye. If you ever get your own racing Chocobo, come back again." Ester said walking away.

"Will do Ester." I waved bye and nudged Cloud to the elevator. We eventually got to the top and exited out into the betting location in the regular section of the park. "Come on, I bet everyone is already at the hotel." I said. We traversed through the park until we got to the large run down looking hotel. Walking inside I noticed everyone was in the main room.

"Nathan!" Yuffie came right up with a big cheery smile. This quickly turned into a very puffed up angry face. "How come you weren't thrown in jail with the rest of us? That's not fair!" I laughed at her frustration. I looked and saw Tifa and Aeris with smiles on their faces, Red near the ghosts playing chess just resting, and the newest edition to the team coming up to me.

"Hi there!" Came a very heavily accented cat's voice. He offered his big moogle hand for a shake.

"That is Cait Sith. He is our newest member." Cloud said. I looked at the huge paw before shaking it with a grin. Reeve hasn't done anything wrong yet, I'll try to keep an eye on him though.

"A talking cat, we could use a guy like you!" The cat gave me a smile.

"Alright! I like you already, how about I take your fortune?"

"Sure why not." I said. Cait Sith then started to do some sort of weird dance. I would have questioned it but I realize I was with a robotic cat, so I just brushed it off as a character perk. Soon enough he stopped and pulled out a piece of paper. I took it and read it out loud.

"A story is told many different ways, it is up to you how this story will end..." I stared at the paper.

"That's almost as bad as the last one!" He exclaimed.

"Just ignore it, it doesn't mean anything." Cloud said.

"You'd be surprised how right the most meaningless of things can be Cloud." I put the paper in my pocket. One thing I remembered about Cait's character was that his fortunes were vague, but they meant something in the game. I just needed to read between the lines to figure it out. I said good night to everyone and went to bed. The next day everyone was leaving the park. When we got outside of Corel everyone seemed to get excited. I just smiled.

"Everyone, the owner has given us a means of transportation as way of apology for the mix up." I said pointing at the buggy. It was one of those large sand dune kind of buggies too. It could easily carry four or five people...but now that I think about it we have eight...including Barret and Cait who are huge.

"You asked for a buggy?" Cloud asked.

"No that was all Dio."

"Guys there's a ton of supplies! At least a week's worth!" Yelled Tifa, who ran up to the vehicle.

"That's what I asked for." I ran up and opened the glove box in the front seat and pulled out one of my other requests.

"Ta da!" Everyone looked at what was in my hand.

"Are those...passes?" Asked Aeris.

"Yup, I got us all lifetime passes to the Gold Saucer, without having to pay 30,000 gil!" Instead of the approval of everyone I just looked around and saw people look at me funny.

"Nate...I forget how much of a kid you are." Said Barret.

"Aw come on guys this was totally worth negotiating for." I defended.

"Nate, when the hell are we ever going to come back here? There ain't no way Sephiroth will come back, so they're all useless." Barret said.

"Bet you 100 gil that we will use these sometime during our adventure and it will be totally relevant."

"You're on!" Barret was about to shake my hand, but Cloud stopped him.

"Barret, you may want to think about this, Nathan has won every bet against you. Are you sure you want to lose more gil?" He asked. Barret just brushed him off and shook my hand.

"What are the odds he's right again?" He said.

"100% noob, now let's go." I said pointing towards Gongaga.

"Nathan, how is everyone going to fit?" Red said. My hand lowered at the thought of cramped space.

"I call the roof!" I said. I jumped on the buggy and sat on the rail bars.

"No fair, I was going to get the roof!" I heard Yuffie yell.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Asked Cait.

"What if a monster attacks, Nathan? What will you do then?" Said Tifa. I reach down into the buggy and pulled out the imitation Masamune I won.

"I have an extra sword, and I can just jump off if we're charged. Actually, Cloud can I use this to fight?" I tossed him the sword and he examined it. He shook his head and threw it back.

"I recommend against that. It's not like the real thing." I was a little disappointed.

"But it's sharpened and everything!" I whined. He sighed.

"Your sword is good, but it's only an imitation. It's not even made out of the same metal that Sephiroth's was made from. Granted, it is a fine quality of Mythril, but it doesn't have the weight to counter balance the length, your holding it in one hand would require weeks of training. How would you use it to fight?"

" I'll strap it to my back and use it for heavy combos. I don't care for the weight, as long as I use two hands, I can shift the weight around."

"Nathan, how do you find ways to use weapons the way you do?" Aeris asked out of curiosity.

"I'm not a technical guy, I'm unrealistic. It's what helped me come up with the idea for those flame retardant gloves that let me have an edge over Reno...come to think of it I should make those gloves again, only better!" Ideas were already starting to form in my head.

"Does he always come up with ideas like that?" Cait asked.

"He thinks on his feet, not productive, but it works for him as well as the team." Cloud said getting in the drivers eat of the buggy.

"I see..." I heard the cat muse. He made a brief glance at me before getting into the buggy.

"Alright everyone, let's try to fit in here, we need to get to Gongaga soon." Cloud ordered.

Everyone stuffed into the buggy as best as they could. Aeris rode shotgun, Barret and Cait took the back with the supplies, and Yuffie was sitting on the roof as well, only her feet were dangling off the side. Tifa was in the middle of the two large guys while Red lay across their laps. I felt relieved to call roof. The engine started, and we were moving pretty fast. It was easy getting away from monsters since we would see them in the distance and had enough speed to avoid them. And the river was easily crossed. Going that fast though, with the wind blowing through my hair, I got a dumb idea in my head...aww what the hell, not like anyone would care! I stood on top of the moving vehicle, careful to hook one of my legs onto a bar so I wouldn't fall.

"Nathan, what are you doing?" Tifa yelled.

"Calm down, I'm trying to remember how the song goes." I said.

"Song?" Yuffie asked. I started tapping my foot at a constant beat, once I remembered the words, I started singing loudly.

"~Someone out there, somewhere is in trouble today~" I saw the raised eyebrows of my friends, but I kept singing.

"~Waiting somewhere, for someone to show them the way!~" Barret had his face in his hand. I laughed a little.

"~That's the time that you and me will show them that we are HARDCORE! Help them out or kick their butts, whatever we are hired for!~" I took a deep breath.

"~THE WEST OASIS MERCANERY ASSOCIATION! WE ARE YOUR HEROS, WE ARE YOUR SALVATION!~" I finished.

"Nate, get down! You're embarrassing everyone!" Yelled Barret.

"To who? The monsters? I don't think they care about us, Barret, plus I never would have got a chance like this again, ever." I said. Happy I got to sing a song after having been deprived for about a week. It was barely even noon when we arrived on the outside of the huge forest.

"Alright we need people to guard the car while we investigate. Barret, Yuffie, Red, and Cait Sith will be here. Tifa, Aeris, and Nathan will be with me." Cloud announced. We all nodded and started to move. The forest was extremely thick and full of sounds. Kinda reminded me of a rainforest until I remembered this was teeming with monster one hundred times more dangerous than some frog or snake. We eventually found a path and started moving, but we started to hear whispers. We all ducked and edged closer. Looking down another side of the path we saw two Turks talking.

"Yo Rude, who do you like?" The bald man turned away.

"Aw come on, don't be embarrassed. Come on tell me who ya like!" I heard a very small mumble but I snickered all the same knowing what Rude was thinking.

"That's a tough one. Poor Elena...she...you." Reno seemed a little nervous. Rude shook his head.

"No, she likes Tseng." That caught Reno off guard.

"I never knew that yo, but he likes that Ancient..." Reno said.

"What are they talking about?" Cloud asked out loud. Everyone just shrugged.

"It's so stupid." Everyone turned at the new voice and saw the Turks new recruit just standing behind them.

"They always talk about who they like or don't like, but Tseng is different." She said. Everyone seem to freeze up, confused why she wasn't attacking them...well almost everyone froze up.

"Tseng is the all business type. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would go for a relationship." I said.

"He is calm and collected, and doesn't just mess around on important missions. How a Turk should act." She responded.

"I guess that's why he's number one then." I mused out loud.

"Of course, he is the best of the best...AH oh no!" Elena's eyes almost burst from her sockets, finally realizing who we were, and ran up to the other two Turks.

"They're here! They're really here!" Rude cracked his knuckles.

"Then it's time." He said.

"Rude...don't go easy on them. Not even the girls." Reno said pulling out his stun rod.

"I'll do my job." He replied, getting into his fighting stance.

"We're counting on you, I'm reporting to Tseng." Elena said running on the opposite path. Everyone looked at the two Turks left behind.

"Looks like you were right; we were going to meet soon enough." Reno said, focusing on me. He extended his electro rod.

"Payback time for sector seven," I had a hand on Fusion.

"Out of our way," Cloud said, keeping a hand on his buster sword. Reno frowned.

"I don't like being taken for a fool." He said rather intellectually.

"That is as far as you go." Rude was the first to strike. I misjudged how long it would take him to get close, because in a split second he was in Cloud's face delivering a mean upper cut. He turned to strike Aeris, but Tifa blocked him and hit him in the gut. I was about to strike, but a large fireball knocked me off my feet; I looked up and saw Reno just smiling.

"No way yo, you embarrass me and miss up on a deal? Your fight's with me. Rude can take the rest of you guys out." He slammed his electro rod on the ground, right where my head would have been if I had not rolled away.

"Hold still!" He took another swing; I pulled Fusion out just in time to block him. I cast my higher lever fire spell and he jumped away. Right then Aeris came in and attacked with her pole; Reno blocked but was knocked off balance.

"Thanks," I said before launching another fireball at Reno. Trying to hit him using Fusion, but he kept blocking and sneaking in a hit. The only way I could stop that would be to go back to slashing with one hand and using the other for magic, but the guy wouldn't let me get enough space to cast now. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Cloud and Tifa doing better with Rude, but not by much. Him being more muscular and physical than Reno gave him more speed than Tifa, so he avoided Clouds sword most of the time, and his fighting style was enough to keep Tifa at bay.

"Pay attention!" Aeris yelled when I was knocked back by her pole, I saw Reno had discharged another exploding ball from his weapon and it blew up where I was. I cursed under my breath. He wasn't messing around this time; he was serious about getting his revenge. I stood up and sheathed Fusion, concentrating until I felt power well up in the sword.

"Air-Slash!" I let Fusion loose and the shock-wave went straight for him. He however jumped out the way and hit Aeris.

"Ha, this ain't the tower; I don't have to worry about cramped space with that strike of yours." He ran up and his fist smashed right into my face. I doubled back and he kicked me in the gut. The pain overrode my senses and I held onto my face.

"This is it? I lost to you? Man, must have been an off day." Reno kept taunting. I felt myself get angrier at his words, I won last time and I was stronger now! I glared at him before an idea crossed my mind. I sheathed Fusion and made a charge at Reno. He was surprised I didn't have my weapon, but he made for a strike none the less. I then grasped my Masamune with both of my hands and made for a heavy smash against him. However, he dodged, and I messed up.

Being angry I didn't think about the weight of the sword and just tried to make a circular swing, only for the tip of the sword to ground itself.

"Well, you snooze you lose." I heard before I felt hundred volts pulse on the side of my neck. I dropped immediately, still feeling the electricity flowing through me, making my senses numb. And a familiar feeling crept over my body, one I hoped that would never happen again.

Tifa and Cloud were having trouble with the Turk. Rude was better than they would have imagined. He could go hit for hit with Tifa and still find a way around Clouds sword. "This is worse than I thought," Cloud murmured, feeling a little fatigue.

"He keeps getting hits in; he reads my moves too well," added a very bruised up Tifa.

"We need to get the upper hand." Cloud noticed Nathan and Aeris having just as much trouble with Reno.

"You should pay attention to your own fights," Rude said before nailing Cloud under his chin again. Tifa came back and blocked for Cloud while he cast what magic he had against Rude. It seemed to be the only strategy that worked since Cloud's fire, which he took from Yuffie, would strike too fast for Rude to avoid while fighting Tifa. The fire would hit his suit but apparently it was made with materia being cast in mind and only had a few smolders, however the high heat would still cause the Turk to slip up. Right then, Cloud heard a very loud gurgling noise and looked to Aeris and Nathan. Reno had gotten the better of Nathan trying to use his new sword and got a clean shock on his neck. Aeris tried to help but Rude shoved Tifa off and knocked Aeris away. Cloud saw Nathan's eyes focus and unfocus from the pain until he had a completely blank stare from the man.

"Now everyone stop." Reno ordered with his electro-rod resting near his leg.

"Now if any of you move, this kid's gonna get more than one thousand volts to his skull. Now if you think your friend can survive this, then come at us, otherwise surrender." Reno said with a very evil grin.

"You cheating monsters!" Tifa yelled.

"Yeah, yeah. Now drop your weapons." Reno said. The rest of the team felt like they were between a rock and a hard place. They couldn't surrender and get captured, but they couldn't let their friend get killed either.

"What, you all think you can still take us?" Reno asked, taking their silence as a threat.

"I guess you want your friend to take a dirt nap then, too bad." Before Reno attacked Nathan his arm suddenly shot out and grabbed Reno's arm and held it in place. Cloud felt a chill go down his spine when he heard him talk.

"_Now did you think it would be easy to put ME down, weakling?"_

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><p><em>To be continued next week...<em>


	17. Chapter 17

A/N Man i know this is late, but I've been studying for my finals which are in the next three days, I think I will do well enough but I have to make sure of that. Anyway i also want to make something clear is that even though my break will be starting Thursday, i will still upload through the time of my break, also due to the way that i upload documents to my beta reader now, conversations won't have that really close text thing. SO now its time for the next chappa...but wait...

This is a celebratory moment. Not only is Christmas coming close, but this is the chapter that breaks the 100,000 word mark! HURRAY!

Merry Christmas and see you next week audience.

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><p>Ch 17<p>

Reno had seen many things in his time as a Turk. Immoral experiments on humans, having to hunt down innocent people just because they tried to get away from Shinra, even what he had done to some or many in his line of work. He acknowledged Shinra was indeed evil in more ways than one; he would be one to admit he didn't agree with how things were run. But he took the job of being a Turk, meaning he had to suck it up and take his orders, it was easier that way. Among the things that he had seen included Hojo's creations that he would either guard or transport. Behemoths overexposed to Mako, making them twice their already large size and grow extra appendages or abilities, that thrashed in their cages with eyes filled with rage and blood lust. Other times included animals tame as Chocobos, experimented to the point of looking almost nothing like their original appearance, the seeming cold and lifeless with a deep emptiness inside their eyes. Yet in all of his years Reno had never seen eyes that stared at him from the ground now.

Almost completely white and glossed over, but they weren't empty. Instead he saw a mix of every negative thing a human could feel...and then more.

"Reno!" Rude yelled, snapping Reno out of his trance. Just in time to jump away from a fire spell aimed at his face from the ground.

"Nathan!" Tifa yelled, ecstatic her friend was well. However, before she could heal him, Cloud got in between them.

"Cloud, what are you doing?"

"Tifa, Aeris, stay back," he said, holding his Buster sword in a defensive stance. Nathan got off the ground and brushed the dirt off of himself.

"_I must give him credit, I believed he would break even more as this progressed. He has a stronger will than most."_ He reached to his side, apparently for his sword. But looking he saw that when Reno dodged he knocked his sword in Rude's direction. He sighed.

"_And you are smarter than you act." _He lifted his hand and a medium sized fireball appeared near his palm. _"No matter, I have more than just that technique at my disposal." _The fireball went straight for Reno, to his credit he dodged, but the follow up punch to the gut was something he didn't expect.

"_And I hardly think I will need a sword for you two."_ He then turned his attention to Rude and launched a lightning bolt. The Turk took the shot, his suit having a few stray sparks fly off before he shrugged it off. Reno tried to hit Nathan with his weapon, but he ducked and pushed him away.

"So you're finally getting serious? About time you actually put up a fight yo." Reno taunted. Although he felt a little taken aback when those eyes were on him again.

"_He may like your character, but you're just an annoyance to me. We are not the same." _He said before sending another fire at Reno. While he was distracted, Rude came up and put him in a hold, shortly after the Turk somehow effortlessly threw him into a tree. Both Turks seemed satisfied when he didn't get up right away. However...

"_And he still has a weak bod;, at this rate I will have to do everything to improve." _He said while getting up of the ground, seeming unfazed even though there was a clear gash on his head, the blood running down the middle of his face.

"Nathan, you need help," Aeris ran up and started casting a cure.

"Aeris you need to stay back!" Cloud yelled. Aeris ignored him and finished her spell. The gash was gone, but Nathan had a more annoyed expression.

"_Stay out of the way. Or have your forgotten whom it is you fear?"_ Aeris froze when his empty eyes looked at her.

"_He noticed how you were nervous a long time ago. Which means I have noticed."_ He knocked Aeris on her side and focused more on the two now confused Turks.

"Something is wrong with this kid's head," Reno said out loud.

"_Let's see if you can take me actually putting in some effort."_ Both Turks jumped when suddenly both a fire and a lightning spell were thrown at them.

"Dual casting?" Cloud said out loud.

"That takes too much magic, what the hell is with this kid?" Reno asked, now realizing he wasn't messing with the same person from a few minutes ago. Nathan shot more fireballs and lightning bolts at the Turks, catching them off guard. Both would dodge when they could while everyone else was just looking.

"When could Nathan do these things?" Tifa asked. Cloud looked over and saw Aeris get up staring at Nathan with fear. He wondered why she would be scared of him. He felt unsettled when he was like this, but for her to already have these feelings before she even saw them?

"_It isn't too hard to manipulate magic like this. Granted the concentration it takes to use two is a little straining, I could easily do three." _Nathan responded to Tifa's question.

"Now!" Reno shouted to Rude. He knocked Nathan back and let Rude come in to uppercut him and then smash him into the ground when his feet lifted just slightly. Reno smiled.

"Cocky little psycho. Now let's get the rest of the te..." He didn't finish his sentence when Nathan just jumped up from being beaten and just sent more lighting and fire at the two Turks.

"_Being deep enough of a subconscious being as I am, turning off unnecessary functions of the body is second nature."_ Rude immediately tried to hit Nathan with a right hook. He was successful, but Nathan simply turned his head back to look at him.

"_My ability to feel pain was the first to go." _Rude then was launched back by a kick from Nathan.

"Damn it! I won't lose again." Reno ran up and charged his shock rod and aimed for Nathan's chest. He hit him, but Nathan just took a step back to counter the impact, barely reacting to the hit.

"_My turn."_ Reno saw a flicker of magic before he was punched, but this time the impact sent him into the nearest tree. The front of his suit was now torn and burnt. He looked up and saw both of Nathan's hands, one covered in flames and the other having lightning crack around it.

"That kid's a damn monster." He mumbled. Rude came up next to him.

"We need to leave." Reno was already angry at him.

"What? We can totally take him; I don't care what that freak can do!"

"He has allies." Reno growled. Even when he and Rude took him down, his friends would still be in good health. He got up and tossed out a grenade.

"I won't forget this, kid." The grenade exploded in a flash of light, causing everyone in the area to cover their eyes. When they looked up, the Turks were nowhere to be seen. Cloud looked over and saw Nathan just on his knees. His left hand looking badly burnt and the other was shaking badly.

"Nathan, are you okay?" Cloud went up only to block a strike from Nathan's sword.

"_Never better, Strife."_ He tried to hit Cloud again, but with his reflexes Cloud shoved him with the heavier sword down on the ground.

"Nathan, wake up!" He shouted into his face but only received a jagged smile in return.

"_Sorry, he's sleeping," _was the reply. He attempted to strike Cloud again, but the buster sword's weight kept him pinned. Cloud lifted his fist.

"It's for your own good Nate." He took one good punch. Even with him not feeling pain, Cloud knew the impact from the punch and his head hitting the ground would knock him out for a while.

"Cloud..." He looked back at Tifa.

"What's wrong with Nathan...?"

(later)

I hate hangovers. Granted, every time I have enjoyed alcohol or anything, the next day I would be good because I knew what to do to minimize the effects on my body. However, when I started to wake up I felt an extremely large headache pulsate and then the rest of my body felt like it was hit by a truck, multiple times, and I couldn't feel my hands at all.

"Hey, he's waking up." I heard. I opened my eyes to see Yuffie sitting over me.

"What happened?" I grumbled.

"I don't know. The guys just brought you back and told me to watch you. It sucks; I knew you'd wake up. You're not a weak guy." she said. I just chuckled.

"Maybe they wanted the best ninja ever to help me out." I said, knowingly feeding her ego. I would rather listen to her brag about herself than whine about having to do something with the team.

"So, how did you do it?" I looked up at her.

"Do what?"

"Take out both the Turks, duh! Cloud said that everyone was at a disadvantage, so you did something to help them win. What was it? I wanna know!" When she mentioned the Turks, my memories came back to me. Reno took me out, how long have I been out? I tried to get up, but my body ached all over, forcing me back down.

"Yeah you're still pretty beat up." You think? I was about to be a smart ass before I saw Cloud walk up. He had a very stern look on his face.

"You went overboard this time."

"What happened then?" He looked surprised at what I said.

"You don't remember this time?"

"Remember what?" He looked down.

"You...snapped again." I realized what he meant and looked away.

"But I was unconscious, I don't remember a thing." I honestly didn't. And to know that...my messed up side came out without my knowing scared me a little.

"Did I hurt anyone?" I hoped I hadn't gotten out of control.

"Mostly the Turks and yourself, but Aeris is shaken. You hit her, nothing as bad as you, but still."

"How bad off am I actually?" I asked. I couldn't get a good look since when I moved I felt jolts of pain.

"Your nerves are still sensitive since you were hit by the Turk's shock-rod a few times. You had a fractured rib as well. Your hands had the worst of it really. Second degree burns on one and the other has nerve damage." I lifted my arms and looked. My left hand was completely covered in gauze, my right was in a similar state, but it spazzed out every now and again, it really annoyed me that I couldn't feel either of them though.

"How the hell did this happen?" I asked Cloud.

"You dual cast fire and lightning on both of your fists. Something like that is already hard enough for someone to do, yet you did it with ease."

"I can't really explain that part either." How is dual casting hard? I know it takes a lot of concentration for one materia, maybe two is a little much I guess.

"You don't need to, I've come to terms that you have something special about you, however before you turned, you were very reckless when you fought." I looked away.

"What are you two talking about?" Yuffie asked. Cloud ignored her.

"You didn't keep calm and Reno got the better of you. You can fight better than this Nathan." I sighed. I really didn't want Cloud to add insults to my injuries right now.

"This is why I will help you when your hands heal." I was surprised to hear that.

"What?"

"You need to learn how to handle a sword with length; although your sword is longer than mine I can still help you use it. If you had experience, you probably would have knocked Reno away."

"So Nathan won too?" Yuffie interrupted again, Cloud sighed.

"Yes, he won, but just barely. Now Nathan you need to rest, it will take a day or two with restore materia for your hands to get back to normal. Everyone's resting by the fire over there if you think you can walk." I tried getting up again, but I fell back down in a mass of pain.

"Guess not. Yuffie, keep him company, and don't annoy him. He's suffered enough as is."

"I never annoy Nathan! He's the only one besides the new guy that hasn't grumbled when I talked." I groaned.

"That was from his injuries." She said.

"Yo Cloud, tell Aeris I'm sorry, I'll explain everything to her and Tifa when I'm better." He grunted and walked over to the group's bonfire, I finally realized we were back with the buggy and I was in the back. From what it looked like, it was almost sundown.

"You gotta teach me how to cast two different materia Nate!" Yuffie said.

"Yuffie, I can't teach you how."

"Aww come on, I'll be your best friend."

"Tempting, but no thanks." Yuffie huffed before she sat still. Soon enough I heard another set of footsteps walk up and I saw it was a concerned looking Tifa.

"Hey." I said.

"You have a lot of explaining to do about what happened." She said.

"Sure, but first could you heal me some more? I hate like feeling like a pin cushion." She sighed and started casting cure on my hands and the rest of my body. After a minute she tried to get me to drink a potion.

"You just cured me."

"You still have internal injuries; the potion will help speed up the recovery of your ribs." Hearing the explanation, I drank the medicine. Tifa sat in the seat next to me.

"What happened to you Nathan? You completely changed" She looked concerned.

"I'm fine now. I just have some problems to sort out." I said.

"You turned into a completely different person Nate. I want to know what really happened."

"Nathan did what?" Yuffie asked.

"I'm guessing not everyone knows about the fight?" I asked.

"We left out a few details, but they know you were the one to run them off." Tifa said. I sighed. "Nate, we are your friends, if something is wrong you can tell us."

"...I'm not right in the head Teef." I said. No reason to lie now, I guess I knew I would eventually have to own up to what has happened to me.

"What do you mean?" Asked Tifa.

"I have been through...a lot of things Tifa. The kind of stuff that would make a normal person breakdown and cry. The reason I didn't is because I found a way to cope with it."

"You mean when you changed..."

"It really wasn't me..." I told her. She looked down, knowing what I was implying.

"You're insane?" Yuffie yelled, surprised.

"It's helped me cope with what's happened, since I was taken from my home, I haven't been the same I guess." I didn't like how the human mind works; the smallest things can set a reaction that can cause the most horrible incidents. Here I am in that state and I don't feel any different.

"Nathan...I know we've been through a lot but I didn't know, I'm sorry." Tifa apologized. I scoffed.

"I should have said something when I took out the Zolom. I should be sorry; Cloud told me I scared Aeris." I said.

"I'll tell her you apologized. She's better now, but hearing that, she'll be back to her old self in no time." She got up and took a few steps, but turned back.

"It's good you told me Nathan. At least you don't bottle up what happens to you." She seemed to stare off into space for a second before shaking her head and walking back to the campfire. Since I had nothing better to do I turned my head to look at the clouds, only to see Yuffie hovering over my face.

"What?"

"You don't look crazy." She stated.

"I only have problems when I lose control of my emotions." And when I get knocked out, I'll need to be more careful from now on.

"Did you really kill a Zolom?"

"Yes." I said. She had a huge grin on her face.

"You have to show me how to dual cast now, you're almost as amazing as me. Maybe I'll teach you something in exchange. Come on what do ya say?" For the next while I tried to get sleep while ignoring Yuffie's constant nagging for me to teach her to dual cast.

(not too far away.)

The group was quiet for the most part. When Cloud brought Nathan back, almost everyone was concerned for his condition. They used up what first aid supplies they had to get him to what he was now. They would have to go into town to get more; apparently Dio didn't understand the full implications of what they were trying to do to Sephiroth and mainly gave them food.

"He's better now if anyone is wondering." Tifa walked up and sat with everyone else around the fire.

"Man, still can't believe Nate took those Turks on his own. You really wouldn't see it." Barret looked back at the buggy, seeing Nathan with a straight face while Yuffie was talking to him nonstop.

"Maybe I should take her place." Red said.

"No, let him be. It'll motivate him to get better faster," Cloud said. He looked at Aeris, seeing she looked troubled.

"He says sorry." Aeris head picked up and looked at Tifa. "He feels bad about what happened."

"Its fine, I just hoped Nathan didn't have anything to hide." Aeris said. Cloud sighed.

"It's not his fault, I kept his secret to." Everyone looked at him. "The same thing happened after you all were hit by the Zolom." Everyone was surprised at this.

"I must ask why you didn't tell us when he was recovering then." Red said.

"I promised him I wouldn't." Cloud simply stated.

"What's wrong with him though?" Asked Barret.

"To put it simply, he has another personality, at least that's what he tells me." Cloud said.

"Another personality?" asked Aeris.

"How in the hell did Nate get something like that?" Barret said.

"He has been through a lot, he saw Sephiroth and lived. He has had too many traumatic experiences." Cloud replied, feeling a little sad for one of his comrades.

"He did say something else I didn't know." Tifa said. Everyone looked at her.

"He said he was taken from his home... Hasn't he been telling us he was traveling?" Everyone seemed surprised at that.

"Taken? Why?" Aeris asked.

"Why would he hide that?" Red asked, which was the exact question on his mind. Nathan had kept some things from the group, but he usually told the truth. He was a very honest kid, so why lie about that?

"Should we talk to him? What do we do?" Asked Aeris.

"Nothing," came the surprising answer from Barret. "Nate's been a good guy since we dragged him into this, unlike you guys he didn't even bug me about what happened at Corel. So I say he deserves the same."

"I agree." Said Tifa. "He told me at the Gold Saucer that everyone has secrets. If he wants to keep his, then we can wait until he's ready to tell us." Cloud sighed. Although he didn't like it, they were both right.

"Then we keep quiet about this. Understood?" Everyone nodded their heads.

"Then get some rest, we still need to see what is in Gongaga." Everyone had gone into their tents to sleep. Yuffie and Cait Sith were guards for the night.

"What an interesting person." Said Cait, looking towards the buggy.

(next day)

I wasn't feeling all that better, but I wanted to keep moving since the longer we just waited around the more time we wasted trying to follow Sephiroth. By mid-morning Tifa said that my rib was fine, but I still needed time for my hands to heal. Cloud forbade me from fighting even with magic until I was healed. He switched me out for Red and said that we should explore a different path. He took the keys to the buggy and said with all the monsters around, it isn't as if anyone could steal it. I had my swords on my back just in case and started traveling one of the paths with Barret, Yuffie, and Cait Sith.

"Look up ahead." Barret said. We came to a clearing in the forest and found a huge pile of jagged metal.

"What is that?" Yuffie said.

"It was a Mako reactor, it exploded though." I said. We all kept walking until we came into the center of the junk heap.

"Damn, this thing was blown to hell." Barret said.

"Must have been a meltdown, it seems like a really old reactor." Said Cait Sith, inspecting some of the wreckage. In the distance though, I could hear mechanical whirling and realized what was happening.

"Guys, we need to hide, Shinra's here." Everyone looked back and saw the helicopter land outside the wreck. We all ran to the other side of the rubble and waited. Coming into sight was Scarlet and a very dejected looking Tseng. Scarlet had gone to specific part of the reactor and opened up a cover, looking inside before she sneered.

"Humph! This one isn't good either!" She yelled, throwing a materia down to the ground. "You only get junky materia from junky reactors. This one is no good. I need a big, large, huge materias. Have you seen any?" She looked at Tseng.

"No I haven't, but I will get right on it." He said.

"Please, we could make the ultimate weapon if we only had some."

"I just can't wait." Tseng replied, although in his usual tone it sounded very sarcastic.

"With Hojo gone the weapons department been getting a bigger budget." She said.

"I envy them." Man, Tseng must really hate Scarlet. Who in the business does he like besides his subordinates?

"But even if we make the perfect weapon, could that idiot Heidegger use it?" Tseng was quiet while she spoke.

"Oh that's right, Heidegger is your boss." She laughed in Tseng's emotionless face

"Let's go." Both left and entered the helicopter. It was gone when we came out of hiding.

"Big, huge materia?" Barret said.

"Perfect weapon?" Said Cait.

"What is Shinra trying to do?" Asked Yuffie, everyone shrugged.

"We'll have to tell Cloud back in town." I said walking up to the panel that Scarlet was at. I reached inside and pulled out a materia.

"One more for the pickins." I said.

"NOOOO" I heard Yuffie yell and she tried to get the materia from me.

"No fair, you always find summon materia! It's not fair, let someone else get something!" Being a foot taller, it was easy to keep the materia out of her reach.

"He finds materia?" Asked Cait Sith, Barret nodded.

"Yeah, hey Nate how do you find them? We have like five now."

"I don't know Barret, I just do." I said. Cait Sith just smiled and started walking out of the place. However we heard a roar at the front.

A dinosaur with tank treads was charging.

"Guys!" I yelled, running behind the group since I wasn't supposed to be fighting anything with my hands messed up as they were.

"Alright, time for some action." Barret said, already shooting at the beasts large head, making it stop in its tracks.

"Just sit tight." Yuffie ran and threw her shuriken, slicing a part of the beast before it tried to strike her; she ran up some of the rubble and took hold of her blade flying back at her.

"Damn it, I need to do something." I said.

"Don't worry; I'll protect you while those guys take it out!" I looked at the cat on top of the machine.

"You use a megaphone for a weapon. Just shout at the creature and we run when it looks at you, now help them. Those things are tough." I told him. He seemed a little surprised before pulling out his weapon. I covered my ears just in case and saw the cat yell into the megaphone. What surprised me was I actually saw the sound waves emit from the amplifier and hit the monster truck/dinosaur monster. It covered its head in pain giving Barret and Yuffie more time to keep attacking, but the monster was big enough to take the hits and try to demolish what was left of the field.

"Damn it." I said again. I wanted to be support, but I had to use my hands to cast magic. I need to find a way around that. It took another ten minutes of shooting, shouting, and slicing but the thing finally went down. Yuffie was the worst since she ran around but she only had a few scratches. Without my hands, I was made the designated pack mule, so I gave her and Barret some potions.

"Man, Nate you need to get better so we have something to help us out."

"Fine, I need to find a way to do magic without my hands though." I told him.

"That even possible?" He asked.

"Not really, that's why armlets were made, it helps with concentration for magic more than you think. Just having the materia in your pocket and then thinking about the spell just takes too much of a draw on you." Cait Sith explained. I was a little surprised he knew so much about magic actually.

"I bet he could find a way, Nate's our best mage! Maybe you'll get famous and get a cool name just like me." I heard Yuffie say. It kind of made me feel good to hear that someone thought I was awesome. It always gave me a warm feeling.

"Well, let's go, the gang has probably gotten stuff from town and some new info. Let's head back to the buggy." We trekked back and found everyone else was already at the buggy. I noticed Aeris and Tifa with thoughtful looks on their faces; I decided not to pry yet.

"Anything good?" I asked.

"We got supplies, but Sephiroth isn't here, we're going to the next town, it will be about two days travel though." Cloud said. I got on top of the roof with some help from the others. I looked at my hands again.

"I need to make those gloves, I need those techniques."

"Were they really that good?" I hear Yuffie behind me.

"Not really, they were just made from a fire blanket and basic gloves. I need to save up some gil to get some decent stuff."

"Like what?" She asked.

"I need elemental materia I think, ribbons are awesome because they somehow repel all status ailments, it's like they're made from master heal materia, so if I have a master elemental I can line some decent gloves with them. I don't know the technical stuff though." I said.

"I wish I could think of cool weapons." She said.

"I guess it runs in the family." Said Barret, I just agreed with him. Cloud started the buggy and we were off to our next destination.


	18. Chapter 18

No Notes, enjoy this chapter as well as whatever holiday you wish, happy Christhaunakwanzakuh!

* * *

><p>Ch 18<p>

**ATE**

Reeve opened his eyes, quickly wrote something down, and then closed them. He repeated this gesture multiple times, reviewing the information that his invention had been collecting. Some extremely useful, others note worthy, and then there were times what he saw in his head would raise more questions. He had been compiling the report from the previous day, and it had already become his main paperwork since getting Cait Sith into the team, although he would admit he perfected this towards having to write reports and suggestions for Midgar only to be denied if the plans didn't constitute saving money. Reeve took his job seriously; he cared for the city like most should.

"But so are the times." He said. Opening his eyes again and writing.

He picked up his report and left his office. Getting to his elevator and pushing for the president's floor. He would admit he favored Rufus over his father, even if he seemed more ruthless than his senior. He even chuckled thinking about how Scarlet and Heidegger were floored when Rufus told them his plan with Cait Sith, and how it had succeeded before the meeting. Hearing the bell ding he briskly walked into the room.

"I don't care what your opinion is, you sent a report and it will be reviewed... I understand you were beaten again, however you must continue...I see, fine then. Do what you want." Rufus hung up and looked at Reeve.

"Did I interrupt anything?"

"No, Reno called to say he is taking a vacation... along with the other Turks." Reeve noted the disappointment in his tone.

"However I think they may deserve it, as long as Cait Sith is functioning we will be fine."

"That's what I came to give you sir, I have the report here." He handed the president his report.

"Anything noteworthy?"

"Besides what happened at Gongaga, some information." He replied.

"I heard from Reno; however what did Cait Sith see?" Rufus leaned back into his chair.

"He wasn't near the fight unfortunately, but his friends claimed to say it was him who took down both Reno and Rude." He said sounding a little impressed, taking two Turks on your own was a feat in and of itself. Winning was a completely different matter.

"I see. Would you like to hear what Reno and Rude said?" Reeve nodded. Reno picked up a paper, reading it word for word.

"It was like fighting a monster." Was the start that surprised the Urban Development manager.

"He displayed freakish control, as well as brutality. The look in his eyes was enough to put me on edge. A tactical retreat was imperative if we were to continue."

"That was about Gongaga?" Asked Reeve.

"More Rude's words, Reno was adamant about Mr. River using cheap tactics." He set the paper down and folded his hands.

"What information do you have?"

"From what I gathered he is the oddest of the bunch. He accepted Cait Sith the easiest out of everyone else. He acts carefree when he wishes and seems to care for his friends deeply, despite only knowing them for a few weeks." Rufus raised his eye brow before Reeve continued.

"However, given the circumstances he is also the most dangerous of them. He is very observant; having never seen Cait Sith fight yet knew what his weapon was for. He possesses extremely powerful magic manipulation abilities; far more than a SOLDIER should be able to handle, at least from the team's description of his battle by dual casting spells." Rufus seemed surprised. He was obviously not a stranger to a human's natural limitations.

"And what makes him dangerous is his mental condition, his knowledge, and true intentions."

"What do you mean?" the President asked.

"I'm sure the Turks explained, but from what I could gather, River has a mental condition giving him a split personality. I also found that he has been through multiple traumatic events, but no details were made of those events. Also he talks about making weapons for himself in odd ways, he doesn't get into the mechanics, but his ideas are potentially destructive."

"You mentioned his true intentions?" Reeve leaned out of his chair, obviously thinking.

"He has been lying to them all about his origins. What his team say and he goes with is that his father used to work for Shinra making SOLDIER broadswords. I checked our data base and they are mass produced mostly by machine, and there hasn't been a River in our employment. While he does wield a weapon made from materia, I haven't seen any manufacture signature on the sheath or sword itself." Reeve ended, letting Rufus mull over the information.

"So they are as much in the dark about him as we are..." He seemed amused.

"Thank you Reeve, your services have been invaluable as of late, you may leave." Reeve got up and walked off, but turned to ask a question.

"What will you do about the situation sir?"

"I will send Tseng to Mideel to see if that is truly his home. If no evidence shows up, it will only make him more of a riddle. He could still be one of Hojo's projects, and considering the circumstances, that may be the only explanation for what gave him his magic abilities. If you can, get more information." Reeve nodded and soon left. Rufus looking pleased with himself at the information.

"What sorts of secrets require that you hide them even from your friends?"

* * *

><p>I sneezed. I looked all around the car and saw everyone was being fairly quiet, I could have sworn someone was talking about me. Then again, that could have been a random sneeze. The buggy came to a stop after we had crossed the river, I could see some large rocks in the distance.<p>

"Alright everyone, we're setting up camp here, it will take some time to drive through those peaks." Cloud said. Everyone nodded and started setting up tents. By now we actually had enough to let everyone have their own so the group allowed themselves the luxury. Although Cait Sith never used a tent, he actually just slept on his moggle. A little odd, but sometimes I forget the furball was a machine controlled by some thirty five year old guy halfway across the world. He was always trying to be helpful though, offering to do stuff constantly for no reason. I swear he goes through our stuff but I never can be awake to see him.

"Nathan, we're taking your bandages off tonight so we can start your training." I nodded at Cloud. I was so happy that I was recovering. Tifa was surprised when she said I didn't have any more burnt skin or twitches by the end of the day. She said I should have been like this the next day. After making a fire and having my hands back, Cloud and I went to a small clearing close by to practice. He with his buster sword, and me with my fake Masamune.

"Okay, now get into your stance." I did just that. Feet spread shoulder width apart, one in front of the other, hunching a bit. One hand on Masamune on my back.

"Wrong." He came up and put both of my hands on the sword.

"You did well enough on everything else, your weight is distributed and you can move how you want. But your sword not only weighs two times more, but it has a significant reach too, making it off balanced." He pulled out his buster with one hand as a demonstration.

"Unlike me, you lack the strength to use one hand, so if you pull it out, it will only be good for one hit, and you need to be able to flow into every strike, using momentum so that the sword never puts its full weight on your arms. Now try to. Make three slashes." I pulled my sword out and made one downward slash. Then I angled it and made for a horizontal swipe and finally made it go over my head for one last strike. It actually put a lot of strain on my arms to even pull that off, and my hands had a small sting to them.

"Good for your first try. Now try four." the rest of the session went on the same basic lesson, using the swords weight to my advantage. He told me again that I still shouldn't use it to fight, maybe just a blade to defend with. But I liked it. If I remembered correctly, it always made a critical hit. Considering how much effort it takes to hit something, I could see that. I think keeping it will help in the end.

"That's it for now." he said and we went back to the camp. I was on guard duty with Red. Honestly we haven't been attacked yet; I'm starting to think some physics from the game still exists. Like if you use a tent, monsters won't attack in the middle of the night.

"Nate." I looked at the animal.

"What do ya need?"

"Could you finish that story you were telling me?" It took me a minute to remember what he meant. It had been a while hadn't it? But he never seemed to mind not listening for the last few weeks. But then I remembered we were getting very close to his home. I smiled, a plan forming in my head.

"Another time Red. I have a feeling you will be ecstatic when I will tell you the rest, but why not tell me about your home? I know we're close." He seemed a little disappointed I wasn't going to finish the story, especially now that he believes he will leave soon.

"Cosmo Canyon is peaceful; the people never seem to be in a hurry. They act as if they have all the time in the world to research what they want there. The peaks are beautiful in the morning and evening; the sun makes them burn a brilliant red." He had a glint in his eye while describing everything. It was nice to see him like that.

"What will you do when you get home?" I asked.

"I would like to see grandpa; it has been to long since I have seen him. But then that will be the end of this for me. I will be home and you all will move on. I hope when all of you are done that you will visit." he said. I smiled at him.

"Don't worry; I have a feeling everything will work out when we leave. Just you see Red." I heard some light stomping and saw the cat jump off of his moggle, coming to the fire.

"awww, nice and warm." the cat said. I doubt he could actually feel the warmth but I really didn't care.

"So how longs it been since you seen your home?" Asked the cat. Red looked down at the ground.

"It's been a whole year." The air was immediately heavier. "I was taken from my home six years ago..." I looked at the ground as well. I didn't know how to react. I honestly didn't know he was away this long. I could feel for him though.

"Sorry." Spoke up the cat.

"You didn't know, it is fine." He said, still sounding down.

"Hey Nate, how bout you?" I looked up at him. "How long you been away from your home?" I noticed out the corner of my eye Red gave Cait a glare.

"Must have been a couple weeks now," I replied.

"Only that long?" Red asked. I chuckled.

"It was actually right when I was in Midgar, I was put into this mess with Sephiroth." I said.

"Wow, you're really unlucky." The cat said. Blunt as all hell, although I had to agree with him.

"I don't know, getting to meet all of you is actually an experience I'm going to treasure forever. You don't know how much this adventure actually means to me." Both seemed confused, after all I bet only a crazy person would say that kind of stuff when pulled into a life or death situation. I just smiled.

"How have you survived?" Asked Cait Sith. Red was the one to answer.

"Despite Nathan's...eccentricity, he is one of the smartest humans I have met. At least where unconventional knowledge is emplyed." I laughed a little. Apparently to a talking lion-wolf I'm weird.

"So what's Mideel like?" The cat asked.

"Really small. Nothing much goes on, small village in the middle of a forest. Amazing hot springs I must say." I said. Remembering what details I could about the town. Thinking about it though, I remembered that it would eventually be destroyed, and it was one of the events I couldn't alter. It wasn't blown to hell like Banora, well not quite like Banora, but an exploding lifestream and earthquakes would tear it to shreds

"You miss your home too." Red asked.

"More than I thought I would." I admitted.

"Are you going to stay when you get there?" He asked.

"I can't right now, and I actually don't want to." Red looked surprised.

"Nathan, what is driving you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone else has something against Shinra, but you don't. You're either lying or something else." I was surprised Red said that. I mean I really haven't given clarity on what I'm going to do but still...

"Like I said at Midgar, I need to protect somebody."

"Who are you protecting?"

"A very dear friend, someone who is going to be very vulnerable while Sephiroth is still alive." Aeris's face flashed through my thoughts.

"And when they are safe, what will you do?" Red asked.

"...After that...I'm not sure." I got up and went inside my tent. I was tired and didn't want to really talk anymore. I slept soundly for the most part, and everyone packed up for the hills we were about to cross over. It was extremely slow and very bumpy. Driving up and through the peaks, I was amazed at how the place looked. Even during the middle of the day the peaks had an amazing crimson glow about them. They reminded me so much of the Garden of the Gods. However, during the drive I couldn't help but notice that the buggy sounded extremely off. I'm no mechanic but the extra vibrations that I felt that weren't rock related put me off edge.

"Cloud, is the engine supposed to make that much noise?" I yelled.

"It's just these hills, it has to work a little harder than normal." He said.

"Cloud I know how engines sound and this don't sound right," called Barret from the back.

"It's completely fine."

(ten minutes later.)

"Oh...a breakdown...now?" Cloud said with everyone else standing to the side of the vehicle.

"Barret, can we fix it?" The man in question shut the hood.

"Hu uh. It's shot, and we don't have any tools."

"But we still have another river to cross, without the buggy it will be almost impossible." I was starting to get annoyed. We were there for the better part of two hours and weren't getting anywhere.

"We can hike the rest of the way. Follow me." Everyone looked at Red. He was going through the peaks and everyone else followed. It was a tough trek, but living in the mountains made it seem normal for me. It was basically sundown before we started walking on stone steps. Cosmo Canyon was coming into view and I had to say it was beautiful.

With the sun now on the horizon, the buildings in the town had amazing shades of red covering the whole area. The Cosmo Candle in the town was burning brightly while the sun was setting. The windmills around the area fit in with the scene. The observatory at the top of the hill was the only thing that seemed out of place considering how mechanical it looked with all of the lights it gave off. Right when we got to the front gate, Red ran to the front entrance to the surprise of the guard.

"I am home, it is I, Nanaki!" He said with more excitement in his voice than I had ever heard him have before. The guard seemed overjoyed to see him.

"Hey Nanaki! You're safe! Come in, say hi to Bugenhagen!" Red ran off with the guard looking at him.

"Nanaki?" Said Cloud.

"Welcome to Cosmo Canyon, are you familiar with the land?" Welcomed the front guard. Everyone shook their heads.

"Let me explain. People from all over the world come here to seek the Study of Planet life." Just then I heard Barret make what I could...possibly count as a fanboy yell...if that's possible.

"I always wanted to come here!" He said in his excited state.

"ummm, we're at full capacity at present, so I'm afraid I can't let you enter." Barret looked like someone just told him Marlene started dating someone. Right before he could say anything, Nanaki came back down.

"They helped me some when I was on the road, please let them in."

"Oh you helped Nanaki? Welcome in, you're more than welcome here!" I laughed while looking at Barret's face again. The guy could change attitudes in a second.

"Who is Nanaki?" Asked Cloud. The guard looked at him confused.

"Nanaki is Nanaki. That is his name." Said the guard.

"Hey, could you help us out too? Our buggy broke down and we need a professional's opinion."

"It's no problem; I'll tell you how it is later, now enjoy yourselves." I nodded at the front guard and went up the stairs with the rest of the gang to see Nanaki waiting for us.

"Here is where I was...I mean...This is my hometown." He corrected himself. Show how much he loved the place.

"You were born here?" Asked Aeris.

"My tribe were protectors of those who appreciate this beautiful canyon and the Planet. My brave mother fought and died here, but my cowardly father left her...I am the last of my race" He sounded rather sad.

"Cowardly father?" said Cloud. Nanaki nodded.

"Yes, he was a wastrel. The mission I inherited from my ancestors is to protect this place. My journey ends here." That seemed to shock everyone but me and Cait Sith.

"Nanaki! You're home!" We all heard in the distance, probably from the observatory, man news travels fast.

"Coming grandpa!" He called, running into one of the tunnels. Everyone else was just standing around.

"Let's take a breather." Said Barret.

"Yeah, let's take some time off, I want to learn more about Cosmo." I said.

"I have some things I want to find out too." Said Tifa. After that Cloud said everyone could do what they want. I went down the stairs and went to the Shildra Inn. The Turtles Paradise poster right next to it stood out. I plucked one of the stubs off and went back the way I came. I went to the weapons store and took the last stub I needed. The sixth was in Wutai, so it would be easy enough. I had a few gil to spare, but I couldn't think of much besides food and I wasn't hungry yet. Soon enough I chose to head to the observatory. Getting on top of the hill just cemented the idea that the observatory was out of place. It was clunky looking and had random satellites rotating. It was like a place for a mad scientist. I tried to be polite and knocked on the front door, but no one answered so I pulled a Cloud and just walked in. I saw Nanaki with an old man in the main room.

Bugenhagen didn't look to old from what I saw. Sure he had a bushy beard and was bald, but he actually had very few wrinkles lining his face. He looked like a man who knew just about everything you did, only more in depth, and more. I walked over and both turned to me, I was a little surprised Cloud wasn't here first though.

"Oh, Nathan, this is my grandfather, Bugen. He is incredible, he knows everything." I smiled at Nanaki acting like his age should be, a happy teenager instead of the old, wise wolf act.

"Ho Ho, I hear you looked after Nanaki a bit." he said, but he seemed to be...bobbing in air?

"It was my friend's and my pleasure to help." I said.

"Oh but you see Nanaki is still a child you see." Said Bugenhagen

"Grandpa stop, I'm forty eight." He said. The old man just laughed.

"Nanaki's tribe has incredible longevity. You see forty eight would be equivalent to fifteen or sixteen in human reckoning." I smiled at Nanaki's embarrassment at the fact.

"Funny you didn't mention that Red, trying to seem mature huh? At least I admit what age I am and people keep mistaking me for different." He just sighed while the old man was watching us.

"He is quiet and very deep; some would think he was an adult."

"I used to be the same on the quiet part. I'm not all that surprised really." Having knowledge of the future dulls out surprises, kind of.

"Grandfather, I want to be an adult. I want to be able to protect you and the village." Nanaki said with his head down.

"No No Nanaki, you can't stand on your own yet." The old man seemed a little depressed. "To do so would destroy you in the long run." He seemed to think deeply, he wasn't even talking all that much to Nanaki.

"Reaching up into the heavens, threatening to snatch the very stars from the great city, Midgar. You've seen it, haven't you...well that's a bad example, looking up too much makes you lose perspective."

"Grandfather I know enough." Nanaki said. Bugen then decided to jump on the table, which is when I finally noticed something.

He was floating the entire time. His legs weren't on the ground. He was apparently sitting cross legged in the air the entire time we were talking. This guy is meditating, with his eyes open. Just floating around, and people don't seem to care in the slightest.

"When it is time for this planet to die, you will understand that you know absolutely nothing." Unlike Cloud I knew how the planet would fair, I just kept with what Nanaki was talking about.

"I know how you feel Nanaki; you want to grow up fast. But a lot of kids do that and then being an adult isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'm lucky enough I still keep my childish nature." Nanaki and Bugen looked at me.

"No disrespect sir, but I believe the planet will live for a while now, Nanaki will be around for a chunk of that. Nanaki, you need to take your time. Get older, but never get old." I told him. Nanaki actually looked surprised at what I had said. Bugen seemed to chuckle.

"An interesting friend you have Nanaki, but tell me Nathan, can you hear the planet's screams as I do?" As if on cue, the silence in the room was filled with odd noises.

"That is the sound of the stars in the heavens, while this goes on; planets are born, and die." Right then I heard another noise. Like an animal injured in a cave, crying out for aid. It was sad...depressing.

"That is our planet's voice then." I stated more than questioned.

"Indeed, it is calling as if to say "I hurt, I suffer"." Bugenhagen said.

"Grandpa, my friends are on a journey to save the planet, why don't you show them your apparatus? Nanaki asked. The old man just started chuckling.

"To save the planet? Ho Ho hooo. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to show them." Before he could explain, a little kid came into the place saying odd people were here, I laughed thinking of everyone else.

"The whole place has been busy all of a sudden."

"Let me get the rest of my friends. Nathan could you get two others? Only three can fit in grandpa's machine." Said Nanaki. I went outside and climbed down to the main square, everyone was just minding their business really.

"Now who should I choose?" I said out loud. Cloud should already be in so that's one...and maybe Aeris since this helps her understand the world better. I found Cloud sitting around the candle and got Aeris from the Shidra.

"Nathan, where are you taking us?" Asked Cloud.

"You'll see." We climbed back up into the observatory. It looked empty until a voice called out.

"The doors unlocked, come in." I went for it and let the other two in.

"Ho ho ho, it looks like everyone is together, let's begin." he made us stand around the middle and then pressed a button. The lights dimmed and the ceiling suddenly changed colors, the floor rose, taking us in until we were completely surrounded by the machine.

I couldn't help but stare in wonder with some tears in my eyes.


	19. Chapter 19

A/N Sorry this is a little late, I had some writers block and couldn't think of a way to end Cosmo Canyon. However I got a good idea and i'm sticking with it. I hope it surprises people as much as I hope it will. I hope everyone had a happy new year, and here is chappa 19.

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><p>Ch 19<p>

You know those pictures on the internet? The ones where it shows a town, then the state, earth and onward until the point where all you see is that tiny little speck in the thousands of other specks? They are supposed to make you feel insignificant and that your actions really don't matter in the grand scale of life. Sometimes enlightening or depressing depending on the person interpreting the picture.

But in here, you take up so much space in the universe. Sure the planets are still big and you're surrounded by the vast nothingness of space, but in here you feel like you're a part of something huge. All around us there was activity. Shooting stars, planets rotating around stars of greater magnitude, meteor showers shooting right by you. And the dome made it look so much bigger; my mind was trying to comprehend how we went from a dark room to somehow being able to stand on nothing, and in the middle of a solar system. I looked over and saw Aeris in almost the same state I was, even Cloud couldn't stop his jaw from dropping.

Hands down, the number one greatest, most amazing planetarium in existence, ever.

"Incredible..." Was what Aeris muttered.

"Ho ho ho, it is something isn't it. Well let's get to the subject then." He laughed, clearly enjoying our awe inspired looks.

"Eventually...all humans die. But what happens to them after they die?" No one answered, it was rhetorical anyway.

"The body decomposes, and returns to the planet. That much everyone knows. But what about their consciousness, their hearts and their souls?" He turned back to use...actually since he's floating I would classify that as rotating.

"The soul too returns to the planet, and not only those of humans, but everything on this planet. In fact, all living things in this universe are the same." He gestured to the worlds around him.

"The spirits that return to the Planet merge with one another and roam the planet. They roam, converge, and divide, becoming a swell called the life-stream. Life-stream, in other words, a path of energy of the souls roaming the Planet."

"Just like Nathan said." Mumbled Cloud, who was almost absorbed into the old man's words. The old man glanced at me with a knowing smile before continuing.

"Spirit energy is a phrase you should never forget."

"Energy from the planet," I mumbled, thinking about the concept.

"A new life...Children are blessed with spirit energy and are brought into the world. Then the time comes when they die, and once again return to the Planet."

"This is what happens for everyone?" Asked Aeris.

"Of course there are some exceptions, but this is the way of the world. I've digressed, but you'll understand better if you watch this." Then it seemed the universe lowered and showed us the Planet. I was a little surprised it was the exact same placement earth was in, along with all the other planets too. On it we saw a man start to turn into what seemed to be energy, along with a tree. Both circled and ended up on a completely different part of the planet and combined into a new person. Right then we saw all different colors of the energy circling the Planet.

"Spirit energy makes all things possible, trees, birds, and humans. Not just living things, but spirit energy makes it possible for planets to be planets. Now what happens if the energy were to disappear?" Bugen held out his hand and the energy flowed toward it. When it disappeared the planet fell apart, completely black and barren.

"These are the basics of the Study of Planet Life." He finished.

"So if the spirit energy is lost, our planet is destroyed..." Said Cloud. Bugenhagen just chuckled.

"Spirit energy is efficient BECAUSE it exists within nature, when spirit energy is forcefully extracted and manufactured. It can't accomplish its true purpose."

"You're talking about Mako energy, right?" Asked Cloud.

"Every day, Mako reactors suck up spirit energy, diminishing it. Spirit energy gets compressed in the reactors and processed into Mako energy. All living things are being used up and thrown away. In other words, Mako will only destroy the Planet..." Everyone was silent while the machine shut down. We were back on a regular looking floor and were lowered until we were leveled. I was really disoriented and actually felt a little sick at the sudden changes.

"The story of the planets...and those who lived with them. You want to know more? Then you must listen to the words of the elders." I'm sure Cloud and Aeris will talk to them, I'm good though. I could go for a bite.

"But what about Re...Nanaki?" Asked Aeris.

"Is something wrong with him?" Bugen asked.

"He told us about being the last of his kind, his mother being brave and his father a coward in something."

"Nanaki? His father, a coward? So that's it...Nanaki's been thinking that all this time." The old man pondered. I left there since there wasn't much else to hear. Climbing down I got to the weapons shop and decided to look around. I was thinking of using another one of Tifa's weapons to help me out. I kept tabs on everyone's materia a lot, and found Nanaki's elemental was actually level two, and if I remember correctly that meant that elements wouldn't harm me. If I used it on Tifa's gloves it would let me do my fist based attacks, but all they had were tiger fangs and those blades would just get in the way. Smashing that idea, I went to the Shildra and got me some mineral water and quite surprisingly, rock candy. Turns out Cosmo Canyon is known to have some of the best. After a meal I easily had me a bag to enjoy. I went outside and decided to sit down with everyone else at the Candle, munching on rock candy next to Barret and Yuffie.

"You know I promised the guys when we saved the Planet, we'd come here to celebrate. But it seems so far away now."

"Don't worry; once Sephiroth is dead everything else will fall into place. Biggs, Wedge, Jesse, and you will all be enjoying a drink when this is all over."

"Now don't cut yourself short, you helped too. You're a member just like them. You're gunna be there too." I just laughed at Barret's vigor. I turned and offered some candy to Yuffie, she gladly took some.

"Hey, you know what those things are for?" She asked me. I looked and saw her pointing at the windmills.

"To make electricity." She actually looked amazed for a second. "What, you've never seen windmills used for generating electricity?"

"Wutai doesn't use electricity, and I thought Mako was the most popular."

"True, but this is cleaner energy. Unlike Mako, where you have to suck up stuff from the planet, they use wind power to make energy."

"Ingenious really." Said Cait Sith on Yuffie's opposite side.

"Why doesn't everyone use them then?" Asked Yuffie.

"Well not every location has wind, in fact Mako needs to be mined specifically too. It would be better for everyone if we just used all types of renewable energy."

"You mean there are more than just wind?" She asked.

"Oh sure, you have hydro power using water potential, thermal power using stuff like boiling water and steam, Solar energy is probably the best though."

"All of those are good for the planet?" Asked Barret, who was listening as well. I found him, Yuffie, and Cait all paying attention to me. I told them what I knew about them, I couldn't really describe the mechanics but I knew enough to get the ideas across. I was a little surprised Cait listened though. He was really interested in what I knew. But the conversation eventually died down and Cloud came back from what he was doing. He was restless and kept walking around though. He talked to Aeris, Barret, and Tifa. Eventually he settled down between her and Nanaki.

"Long ago, when I was still very small, we were all around this flame...No never mind." Nanaki started and very quickly ended.

"What happened?" Asked Cloud.

"When I talk about my mother, I am full of pride and joy...and that's fine. But when I remember my father, my heart is full of anger..." He almost growled.

"You really can't forgive your father?" Everyone turned to look at Bugen float by.

"Of course...He left my mother for dead. When the Gi tribe attacked, he ran off by himself, leaving mother and the people of the canyon." The old man seemed to stare at Nanaki before thinking of what he wanted to say.

"Come Nanaki, there is something you should see." Nanaki looked at him oddly.

"The place may be dangerous. Cloud, will you and Nathan come with us?" That surprised me a bit. It's odd being called out when you're not really supposed to be recognized.

"Where are you going?" Asked Tifa. Cloud and I shrugged and started walking with Nanaki. We followed the old man until we came into the room that had a huge metal door.

"Ho ho ho, are you all set?" We were, I always carried potions with me and Nanaki was given a cure and heal with his poison and elemental. Cloud still had sense and steal along with an ice materia with Shiva and Choco/Mog. With my level two fire and lightning, we were prepared enough. We all nodded and he turned to press a button that appeared out of a barrel. The door next to us clicked and opened.

"All right, come in, come in." He said, sounding not unlike he was inviting us into his home.

"Aren't you going with us, grandpa?" Nanaki asked.

"What are you, crazy? It's dangerous in there, I told you that! You want me, an old man, to go in first? I'll be right behind you." I laughed hard. Leave it to the old guy to lighten everything up. Cloud and Nanaki both shook their heads. We went inside and saw a small cave with a large hole in the ground. Bugen just floated down to the bottom and Nanaki jumped down after him. Cloud and I were left to use ladders and poles to get down. As we got lower, the texture of the rock started to change. There would be cracks with glowing green insides. Finally getting down we left the opening and came into a larger cavern. The thing that stood out the most was that there was a thick miasma all around us. Nanaki had it bad, actually looking like the smell was making him tear up, and I coughed a little and tried to breath slowly. I looked over and saw both Bugen and Cloud were perfectly fine, though the older man simply observed Nanaki and me.

"There is a switch here that will let us into the next area." He noted. While we walked through the area, I mentioned seeing something shiny on a higher platform and Nanaki got it. I traded him the new added effect for my elemental back so now Nanaki was protected from poison. Afterwards, I "accidentally" stumbled on the right rock and opened the door to the next area. I really wanted to leave; the stench of the place was killing me. Bugenhagen stood at the entrance.

"Everyone here is a ghost of the Gi tribe. Killed in a certain battle."

"A certain battle?" inquired Nanaki.

"The vengeful spirits of the Gi didn't disappear, and couldn't return to the Life-stream. But we still have far to go, ho ho hoooo." The old man said. He got behind our ground and we continued. Coming into the new room I looked over the edge and saw the large pool of what looked like...blood? I wasn't sure, I knew well enough to not fall in, but the stuff added more to the stench in the air. I was almost tearing up when I looked at Cloud and Bugen, and they were both fine.

"How the hell are you guys not getting this stuff in your system?" I whined.

"I can't feel all that much, it's uncomfortable but tolerable." Cloud admitted. Seriously how in the hell is he not affected? I heard Bugen chuckle and I glared at him.

"You and Nanaki both have problems here, it is funny." He admitted. That pissed me off a little.

"At least it isn't just my nose smelling this stench." Nanaki piped in. We couldn't continue though, we all were on guard when we heard deep growling around us. Around us were three wolf-like monsters with zombie-like faces. I couldn't remember their names, slippery something, I don't know.

"This place is also a den for monsters, the miasma attracts them." Bugen said at the back of the group. Red was ready to pounce while Cloud and I pulled out our swords. I still wasn't comfortable using my Masamune, so I had fusion and a spell ready while the three monsters were inspecting our group, looking for weak links.

"Get ready, they'll attack who they think is weakest." Cloud said. Since we had the entrance covered, Bugen would be hit. Eventually the largest of the three monsters, most likely the alpha, had lunged at Nanaki. He attacked and knocked him over while the other two came charging at us. I cast a fire spell and was able to fend off one, Cloud moved to the front while the third attacked; he just had a materia flash on his sword and swung down, cleaving the monster in half.

"I have got to get me a deathblow materia." I thought out-loud, too bad I was unconscious during that time. The Alpha tried to hit Nanaki again, but he clawed its face forcing it to retreat. I cast a level two fire spell on the remaining beta, and it was burnt enough to stop moving. Nanaki finally finished off the alpha when it attacked again only for him to land a bite on its neck and crush it.

"Stupid mutts." I muttered.

"Agreed. We should get through here fast." Cloud stated. Bugen started leading the way.

"As you can see, this cave leads to the back of Cosmo Canyon. It was unfortunate the Gi were larger than us. If they attacked through here, we wouldn't have stood a chance. Now let's move on." He said as we went deeper inside of the cavern. We came upon the multiple caves.

"Which one?" Stated Cloud.

"Second from the right," the old man stated. We all went through only to see a gigantic web in our path.

"Some monsters have stayed here so long that they grew more powerful from the Gi's influence." The web started moving when we saw something start coming down from the ceiling.

A giant spider.

"Like I am about to wait for that bullshit!" I cast my fire spell onto the web, making the spider fall while it was caught in the mess. Cloud was concentrating until he opened his eyes.

"Everyone get out the way." He moved to the side of the path for some reason along with Nanaki. I did too while looking back to see he had used one of the summoning materia. A Chocobo ran past the group and into the giant spider. I thought it didn't do any damage until I felt the air in the room get heavier. The crash somehow caused air to compress onto the monster. The sudden cloud of dirt flew everywhere. When it dissipated, we saw the Chocobo pick up its Mog rider and fade out of existence. The spider was downed easily since we took it by surprise.

"Surprised you reacted so quickly," stated Cloud. I sighed.

"I hate spiders, and I am not dumb enough to let one with legs twice my height get anywhere near me." This seemed to get a chuckle out of the old man and he started leading the group again.

"This warrior went through this cave. Fighting off attackers one after another." Said the old man. Nanaki finally asked what was on his mind.

"Grandpa...that warrior..." Before he could continue Bugenhagen kept moving forward.

"We are almost there."

"I'm beginning to think this is more trouble than it's worth." Said Cloud following.

"We're almost done with what's happening, just keep calm and alert." I said. Full well knowing what was in the final room. We went through more tunnels until we arrived in the last room. The air was now heavier than before. Evil felt like it was surrounding us entirely. I noticed Cloud was very on edge compared to last time, and Bugen was very surprised to see a giant statue with a demonic face on it.

"What is this..." He questioned, examining it. Nanaki immediately got into his attack position. Somehow knowing what was going to happen.

"Grandpa, is this..."

"After death...the ghosts of Gi...like stagnant air. This can't be!" He got away from the statue. Immediately it started warping out of shape. Seeming to smile evilly until it dissipated, revealing a shaman dressed ghost.

"How is it alive?" Yelled Nanaki.

"Enough hatred and even death can't stop you." I said.

"Nathan, call Shiva. I will use my ice spells. Nanaki, prepare your sled fang." Cloud yelled, already summoning ice to hit the creature. It yelled and waved its staff, making two pieces of fire come to its aid. I finished my spell and felt a familiar chill. Shiva appear and shot ice at our opponents, getting rid of the mini flames and angering the shaman. It waved its staff to drain energy from Nanaki, looking stronger than before and our ally looking worse for wear.

"Attack! Keep it up." Cloud yelled again. Nanaki attacked and bit onto the spirit before taking a good chunk of its rotten flesh off. The shaman drained him again.

"It keeps focusing on Red, Nathan you need to distra..." Right before he finished I decided to make this easier. Even though we didn't get the X-potion, I still had plenty of high potions. I took one out of my back pack and threw it at the Gi. It hit is face and shattered, the healing components causing it pain, making it swing its staff in my direction.

"That will do." He said, now getting the idea. "Red, cast cure on it." Nanaki started healing the monster. The more it was healed, the more damage it accrued. Most likely purifying the rotting flesh. The monster drained me the next time. It felt horrible actually, like my very life was being sapped away. When it was done the Gi summoned three fire spawns and launched them at us. All of us unable to guard, we were all hit and the fires disappeared.

"That didn't hurt as much as I expected." However looking at the other two I could see I was very wrong. Both Cloud and Nanaki looked very sickly. Cloud tried to ignore it and cast an ice spell at the undead Gi, only to suddenly be burned and the flames disappeared just as fast as they came.

"They're possessed, the Gi must be killed or they will die," stated Bugenhagen from behind me. I growled.

"Nothing in this world can be easy for me can it? Nothing will ever go the way it's supposed to or be less difficult than it seems." I said getting angrier. The shaman attacked me but I pushed Bugen out the way and went with him.

"I should just try to blow up everything we run across; it's the only way to make any of this easy!" I yelled at the ghost.

"Nathan calm down, you're losing focus." Cloud called, still trying to attack.

"No, I hate everything that keeps happening! I hate giant spiders, ghosts, and Sephiroth. It's just gunna get harder and harder and I'm sick of it!" I clenched Fusion in my hand. It glowing a very bright purple. Next to Cloud I saw Nanaki get up, he looked over and saw the animal with a dangerous glare in his eye.

"My mother protected Cosmo Canyon from these monsters; I will not let it win." He snarled.

"Nanaki.." Mumbled the old man. Nanaki let out a loud primal howl that seemed to shake the room. He charged the Gi faster than before and took a good chunk of flesh with him again. He used Lunatic High. I looked at Fusion and concentrated hard on my negative emotion.

"I hate this game..." I whispered.

"I hate being separated from my family." The swords glow grew more.

"And everything's just going to get worse." I held the sword out.

"Nathan?" Asked Cloud.

"Let's see if that stupid technique will work now." I said through gritted teeth. The Gi was summoning more fire minions.

"Bankai, Power Burst!" The sword swelled and let out its energy just like before. I felt lighter and stronger. The Gi got hit by the sudden explosion of what was left of my magic power. I couldn't cast Shiva anymore. But the strength and speed would easily compensate.

"Nanaki, you and me. We can take this thing down" I said. He just nodded and attacked again. Attracting the Gi's attention. The fire souls tried to hit him, but Haste allowed him to avoid the attacks. He took another bite at the Gi when I ran up and sliced at its staff arm, almost cutting it in half. Cloud cast another ice spell, causing the Gi to roar. All of the fire minions disappeared.

"It's getting weaker!" Bugen yelled. Nanaki and I kept attacking while Cloud backed us up with magic. The spirit kept losing flesh left and right. Eventually it was torn worse than it was before, Nanaki and I down from our respective powers and Cloud mentally exhausted.

"It's still up?" Cloud blurted out.

"It must... really...want to kill us." I joked in between breaths. Nanaki, not having to worry about after effects like myself, made the final attack. He prepared a Sled Fang and ran at the spirit. He jumped and took a good chunk of its head with him. The Gi started to disappear. The whole room's air suddenly got cleaner. I was able to breathe again.

"Fucking finally." I sat on the ground, downing a potion right away and tossing Cloud one. The old man came up to us.

"Thank you Cloud...Nathan...because of you, we survived." He looked over at Nanaki who looked just as bad as Cloud and me.

"Nanaki, I can see you have grown too."

"Oh yeah?" He asked excitedly.

"Now I know it wasn't a mistake bringing you here. Come, I have something to show you." Despite wanting to argue, I got up and helped Cloud so we could all get to the end of the cave, after getting the gravity materia. Eventually we got into a cliff area with Nanaki running up the rocks and looking up.

"This is..."

"The warrior who fought against the Gi. He kept them from taking even one step into Cosmo Canyon." Bugen came out, a somber look on his face.

"But he was never able to return home. Look Nanaki, look at your father. The warrior, Seto." Everyone looked at the petrified remains of Nanaki's father. Arrows striking out of his body, him facing away from the cave as if blocking it.

"That's...Seto?" Nanaki murmured in disbelief.

"Seto continued to fight the Gi tribe here...to protect this canyon. Even after the Gi's poisonous arrows turned his body into stone...even after they all ran away...Seto continued to protect us. He even protects us now"

"Even now..." Mumbled Nanaki.

"You thought he was a coward and ran away. But he alone risked his life to protect Cosmo Canyon. That is your father, Seto." The old man said with pride.

"That...that is Seto? Did mother know?" Nanaki almost demanded. Bugenhagen chuckled.

"She knew... the two of them made me promise to keep this cave shut. They asked me to seal it myself and never tell a soul. They said we should forget about this cave." Nanaki looked down. Wide eyed at the revelation. Bugen turned to Cloud and me.

"Would you two leave us alone?" He asked.

"Of course," I agreed. Cloud nodded and we both walked back into the cave. With the miasma gone, the monsters wouldn't bother us anymore. We sat at the entrance, waiting for the other two.

"Pretty wild, he believed his father was a coward, yet he was the strongest there was in the canyon." I said. Cloud just nodded.

"Nathan...let me look at your eyes." I looked at him bewildered. He looked relieved.

"I thought you may have changed, you were getting angrier. It was hard to tell." He answered. It made sense. The last time I used that attack was with the Zolom. There wasn't much to go on.

"S'alright, you're our leader. You're just making sure." I nodded again. I threw him another potion and drank one myself. We didn't talk all that much. I heard a howl come from outside and smiled. Both Bugenhagen and Nanaki came in and we left the cave. Tifa and Aeris were hysterical when we came back looking tattered and beaten. Barret and Yuffie were mad they didn't get any good fights and Cait Sith just waved at us and asked how it was. It was the middle of the night so we all got some rest. In the morning I felt a little better but I still wanted to stay in Cosmo. Cloud said we needed to go, that we had already spent too much time there.

"They said they finished the Buggy," stated Tifa. We were all sitting by the fire, sans Nanaki.

"Shall we get going?" Cloud asked. Everyone nodded.

"So this is it...Red." Said Aeris sadly.

"That's just the way it goes...You came in handy at times." Barret said. Everyone got up.

"Guys, I want to say bye one last time. I'll be right back." Everyone nodded. I turned and smiled. I climbed all the way to the observatory. I went inside and saw Bugenhagen by himself.

"Sorry, thought I'd say goodbye to Nanaki." The old man chuckled.

"There will be no need, he'll keep traveling with you all, I'm sure he's telling your friends now." I acted excited.

"Really? That's great!"

"Before that, would you sit down with me?" I was a little confused. But I complied and sat in one of the chairs while he floated in his usual position.

"I have been meaning to ask you something." He said. "Where do you come from?" I gave a confused look.

"Mideel. An island southeast of the main continent."

"I see. That is what you told your friends. But where are you truly from." I saw him narrow his eyes. I did the same.

"I am from Mideel. Why would you think otherwise?"

"The planet is quiet around you." he stated. I was confused.

"I hear the planet's cries Nathan, I have heard this world suffer. But around you it is confused. It doesn't cry; it doesn't speak as Nanaki has told me. You influence it. Please, I ask politely. Where are you from?" He finished looking me directly in the eyes.

What was hard was I wanted to lie to him. I wanted to keep up what I had told Cloud and everyone else. But the way he looked at me...I just couldn't

"I don't know if you would believe me." I said.

"I have been here for 129 years, I believe I can take what you can tell me," he stated.

"Would you believe you're just a work of fiction? As well as Nanaki and the rest of the group? Your whole world?" I asked. His face softened after what I told him.

"How would that be?" he asked curiously.

"I do come from a different world, as you so subtly implied. But in my world...this place is nothing more than a game...a fantasy role playing game." He held his gaze with mine, as if trying to figure out if I was lying.

"Tell me your story. How you got here...what your world is like...I want to know if you are telling me the truth." He said.

So I did. I told him about Earth, the general knowledge I had about the planet. My own life and how I loved games. How much I loved FF7. Explaining the plot behind it. Describing the events that had gone on, went on, and would pass. What surprised me was that Bugenhagen never interrupted me. He just floated there, listening to every word I said. Never changing facial expression or even commenting. It felt like hours before I was done. He thought the information over.

"It does explain your eyes and spirit."

"What?"

"Your eyes are much like mine when I first met you. They have knowledge that many others do not know; you have seen what can happen and what could be stopped."

"Okay, I get that but what does that have to do about my spirit?" I asked.

"I have been around in this world long enough to feel differences in the planet. I am most likely the only human who can besides Ancients, but they can communicate with the planet." I nodded my head.

"I know how spirit energy feels, for it to age and gain experience. Each soul is unique."

"What makes mine special?" I asked.

"You have spirit energy that has never been taken from the Planet. You have never experienced the cycle this planet goes through. You are young, but your spirit gives off energy as if it was only born a few weeks ago."

"The same time I was transported here." I said. He simply nodded.

"Ho ho hooo, you have told me so many things my friend. But why do you deceive your friends?"

"Two reasons really, are they as accepting as you? Would they so readily absorb what I told you? I'm still skeptical you believe me."

"It is the explanation you gave me, you were honest. You believed what you said, and it answered my questions how I wanted them to. However, your friends aren't an old man such as me; I can see why you wouldn't say."

"The other is...because they would hate me if I had knowledge of something bad happening, and not preventing it." I looked down.

"It's one of them..." He mused. I nodded. "You are afraid if you don't prevent one of their deaths they will blame you because of your knowledge." Again, I nodded. We both sat there for some time before I spoke up.

"In all honesty I'm glad I told you, it's been bugging me a little. It's nice to have a person to talk to." Bugen smiled.

"You are one of Nanaki's friends; it is my pleasure to help you." I got up and walked towards the door.

"I guess it's time for me to go. I can't keep everyone waiting." Bugen chuckled.

"I guess we are done then, it was nice talking to you...and Nanaki, it's impolite to eavesdrop on private conversations."

tbc...


	20. Chapter 20

A/N I know a few people wanted my chapter to be early but i really couldn't get any of my ideas straight. I kept thinking about future chapters and such which brings me to my first order of business.

Should I or should I not have the extra WEAPON bosses in here? They are an extra I could skip over or add into chapters for support, fillers, and basically just some huge extra epic battles. In your reviews i could really use your opinions. Which then leads to our next order of business.

I have noticed a spike in my author alerts and story alerts in the past month, I would like to get at least a few reviews from these new guys. Also I want to hear ideas for future moves Nathan can use as his limit breaks or techniques, I'll send a message back on how i like the idea. I am willing to answer questions people may have if my fic doesn't answer them...Except from Saria19.

Honestly you find a way to get into my head cuz i'll be like "Man i am gunna be so stoked to use this idea." here you are two chapters before its made "When is this idea gunna happen?" You ask to many good questions Saria. Get out of my head! But still thank you for your Beta ability's, I need somebody to help my grammar and i have been going up the ladder slowly.

I don't own FF7, i never will, in another dimension I probably do and I am lucky for that. Chappa 20 everyone.

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><p>ch 20<p>

**ATE**

Rufus tapped his finger on the desk. He had decided it was time to find a better method of tracking Sephiroth and was currently waiting on the phone. He had been given Reeve's latest report and it was as interesting as the rest. He was surprised when the Urban Development manager had explained that the group's genius had a developed knowledge of alternative energy. Shinra had done well enough to make sure Mako was the world's most demanded energy source, going as far as keeping the general public blind to the obvious side effects and limiting access to any documents pertaining to other advanced forms of generating energy. But the way he described everything proved he had access to said knowledge. It was good Tseng was in Mideel investigating what he could.

Reeve had described Cosmo Canyon in detail and Rufus noticed the small twinge of excitement he had at the windmills there. From what he could remember, Cosmo never actually had any decent Mako reserves, so Shinra never paid them any mind when it came to energy. All they had were windmills and they only generated so much considering they weren't as powerful as their reactors. He was also surprised to find it was the home of the experiment that Hojo had. Red was what he believed they called him. Rufus didn't know that the creature was an actual species rather than a culmination much like the rest of the mad scientist's projects.

Click. "Hello?" came a very soft spoken female voice on the other line. Rufus actually had to focus his hearing.

"Hello, is Mr. Highwind available?" He asked. A response of "Hold on," was made and he waited for a few seconds before he heard her again.

"He is currently fixing up his plane; may I ask who this is?"

"I am Rufus Shinra, current president of Shinra Inc. I wished to discuss something with Highwind. It is very urgent."

"I'll tell him," came the response. He waited until he heard a very angry grunt on the other end of the line.

"Damn it Shera, why didn't you tell me this was an important call! You don't make important people wait!" Rufus pulled the phone away from his ear, letting the ringing in it die down.

"This is Cid Highwind, what do you want?" Came a gruff voice.

"Mr. Highwind. Shinra has taken a personal interest in one of our old projects. We would like to hear if you will help us." Rufus carefully worded. He had already read his file and knew of the pilot's old affiliations and ambitions.

"Why didn't you say so? I'm sure we can do something about the space program again! You need me to fly again right?" Rufus heard anxiously.

"I am merely calling to set up a meeting so we can discuss this, Mr. Highwind. We don't have any plans set as of right now."

"Shit...right, business talk. When do you want to meet?" The pilot asked.

"I plan on coming in within the week, how does one o'clock sound, Thursday, you'll have four days to prepare."

"Good, bout time you suits came to your senses. We'll have everything prepped when you get here!"

"Then that will be all. Good day Mr. Highwind." He hung up. So far everything was going according to plan. The hard part would be to get Cid to give him the Tiny Bronco after realizing he didn't want to start the space program up again. However he believed Highwind would have to comply eventually. He would take a few guards just in case. But right now he had to do the part of the job he hated.

He had to talk to Palmer as well...after he listened to some music.

* * *

><p>"I hope you realize you may have betrayed your friend's trust by listening Nanaki," Bugenhagen scolded.<p>

"I was passing by to say goodbye, I didn't intend to listen in," Said the Crimson feline who now stood next to me. Bugen only sighed.

"It seems you have to explain to one of your friends then, Nathan." Nanaki stared at me with his good eye before looking back at the old man.

"You can't believe he is telling the truth! It is completely farfetched." He almost growled.

"You said yourself that the Planet is cautious around him, and he gave his explanation." Bugen replied.

"You believe what he says? That our world is nothing but fiction?" He sounded angrier.

"I was being honest," I pleaded. He glared at me.

"You're lying," he stated.

"He believes he is telling the truth, though it is quite a story." Bugen said, sounding amused.

"I don't care; the planet doesn't want to tolerate his being. I haven't seen it, but I have heard. When he changes, the planet becomes fearful of him...just like Sephiroth." I felt like I was hit in the gut when I heard that.

"Yes he has told me. His condition...but he is a fragile mind, he is acting much like what I had told you about standing on your own, and it hasn't destroyed him. As long as he has his allies, he will be fine."

"He could be a threat to the Planet."

"Now just imagine how everyone else will react to this, Bugenhagen. That's why I didn't say." I pitched in. Nanaki may be angry at me, but this only proved my point.

"That fact is you lied to all of us." Nanaki stated.

"For good reason, tell me Nanaki. What would you do if you had knowledge about an impending doom on a world, but didn't have the strength to stop it? Even with your friends?" He didn't retort so I continued.

"What would you do if a person you now consider a precious friend was going to die indefinably, and any wrong move you made could possibly speed that end up?" His eye widened at that knowledge.

"You want to know what I know about the future? After all this is done there is still danger within the next two years, and the year after that. What would you plan to stop all of this when you don't even know how long you can survive in a world you have never actually experienced?" Nanaki finally kept his mouth shut, taking into consideration what I had told him.

"Nanaki," he looked up at Bugen. "I withheld important information from you as well. Yet you grew stronger from it. Your friend asks you to keep this a secret, just as I was asked too." For a time Nanaki didn't say anything. He just looked at the ground. Eventually he sighed.

"As long as he presents no threat to the planet...I am willing to keep this a secret." I felt thousands of pounds lift off my shoulders that instant. I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding.

"Ho ho hoooo! Good, then I wish you the best of luck on your journey to save the planet. Nathan, do be careful. I know how powerful knowledge can be. Only change what you feel must be changed." I nodded and said my goodbye along with Nanaki. We didn't say much as we walked back to the now fixed up buggy, despite being gone for a good thirty minutes at least, walking back with Nanaki quickly dissolved any questions the group had for me and all focused on the happy fact that we still had one of our teammates. We entered and were soon driving out of Cosmo. It was still a bumpy and slow ride considering we were now going down the peaks. I still enjoyed my seat on the top of the vehicle, though I was a little disappointed knowing we would for some reason ditch the thing after Nibelheim.

Speaking of the place, I noticed both Cloud and Tifa with very distant looks on their faces. I knew it would shatter their worlds seeing their town exactly the same as before the incident. But as long as they had everyone else, I'm sure they would be able to make due.

"How long till we get there?" Asked Barret.

"By car it won't take that much time. Just a while longer." Cloud replied.

"Hey Cloud...do you think it will still be there?" Asked Tifa.

"What's left of it anyway," was the cold response. Everyone was quiet until Aeris decided to break the awkward silence.

"What was it like before?" Cloud kept his eyes on the road, ignoring the question. Tifa was the only one willing to not ball everything up.

"It was nice, quiet, and peaceful. Monsters rarely tried to get in. It provided a simple place to live. Isolated too, it would take weeks if not a month for news to travel there. Everyone knew each other; it would be hard not to run into someone you knew personally." She said with a small smile, happily reminiscing. However, it all went to a waste when the buggy just suddenly stopped. If I didn't have my leg caught I would have been thrown off the thing.

"Cloud, what the hell are you trying to pull?" Yelled Barret. It fell on deaf ears though because Cloud just jumped out of the buggy and begun running.

"What is he doing?" Asked Aeris. I looked at Tifa who had an almost horrified face.

"It can't be..." she jumped up and ran as well. Everyone decided to follow the two. Eventually we were behind the two who were just staring at the entrance of the town.

It was perfectly intact, no scorch marks, no dead wood, the entire town was clean and built perfectly fine.

"...Nibelheim..." Cloud whispered. Tifa actually fell to her knees at the sight of the place.

"Wasn't this place supposed to be burnt down?" Asked Barret

"Yeah..." Cloud responded.

"Cloud, did you lie to us?" Was Aeris' question.

"I'm not lying!" He snapped, and then looked back at the town. "I remember...the intense heat of the flames...the people's screams..."

"But...why is it all still here?" Tifa asked.

"This place gives me the creeps." Yuffie shivered.

"I know, I don't like the feel of it." I said. There wasn't a soul out on the streets. The town just looked picturesque and was disturbingly quiet. I felt like I could just go up to a house, push a wall, and all of the lies would just fall down, board after board.

"What should we do?" Asked Nanaki.

"...Book a room, everyone else...ask around. I want to know exactly what's happened." Cloud growled. He hated the facade more than anyone else. He went to his mother's house, Barret went to the inn. Aeris and Yuffie were knocking at doors and then just entering houses when they didn't answer. Nanaki and I just followed Tifa, who went to her own home. We went inside and she just froze up.

"It's just like it was before the fire..." She looked at the room, absorbing every detail. Slowly we walked up the stairs. Eventually we arrived in her room. She sat on her bed. Completely taken in at how everything seemed perfectly fine. I walked over to the desk. Rummaging through it, I found what would explain the whole thing. The periodic and the confidentiality reports, I threw them to Tifa.

"Disgusting..." I didn't want to read them. Just knowing what was written before hand left a horrible taste in my mouth. Tifa looked at both papers, staring them down before crushing them and throwing them away. Fury was clear in her eyes.

"It's always Shinra, no matter what happens to us it s always them controlling everything!" She just sat at her bed; I just went and patted her shoulder, Nanaki sitting on the floor, looking at the wrinkled documents. Tifa calmed down some before I picked up the papers and left, leaving her to remember what good times she did have. Nanaki followed.

"You knew..." He stated.

"It still doesn't mean I can't feel disappointed, or angry at what lengths Shinra will go."

"...Will everything we do be predetermined?" I chuckled.

"I don't know, some minor things have changed since I've come...you reminded me of something I heard once." He looked at me.

"In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control; even over his own will." I let the words sink in before continuing.

"I may have controlled you all at some point, but now you all have actual feelings, not ones and zeros determining how you act. I know you have to keep my secret, but I can only guess how everything will go. I won't be the most reliable fortune teller, that's Cait's job." He actually chuckled at that. We entered the inn, finding out we booked the only two rooms, I just went upstairs, giving the fake innkeeper a sneer. Inside I found Barret, Cloud, Aeris, and Yuffie all talking about the odd town's people.

"I found out what's been going on." I gave the papers to Cloud and sat on the bed next to Aeris, Nanaki sitting by Barret. He looked them over. The only reaction he let show was a deep frown.

He was pissed beyond all recognition, but he hid it well.

Everyone else got a look at the papers; no one really voiced their opinions. We took most of the day up by searching most the town so everyone went to their own rooms; one was for the guys and the other for the girls. Lucky for us Nanaki liked to sleep on the ground so we all had beds.

"It's strange...being in this room again." Cloud said. I remembered we were in the same one he shared with Sephiroth at one point.

"It's exactly the same...yet completely different."

"What are we going to do tomorrow?" Barret asked. Cloud turned away from the window.

"We'll continue searching around, find clues if Sephiroth came here. He never went to Cosmo Canyon, he may have slipped away." He sat on his bed now. I just looked at Nanaki and patted my bed; he lay down next to me.

"Now I believe I owe you a story, don't I" He perked up. "Now where was I?"

"You were at the part where the warriors were going to Terra." He said. Sounding a little like the sixteen year old he was.

"Oh yeah, Zidane and friends were about to enter the portal when suddenly..."

For most of the night I told Nanaki the rest of the plot to FF9, I was happy we were on decent terms. It was late before we were able to get any sleep. The next day everyone had gone out again. I was looking around the mansion area. I had to say there was an air about the place too. It wasn't suffocating like the cave of Gi, it was more oppressive. You knew something was inside, but you dare not go near it because of how scary the secrets in the place could be.

"The...great...se...phiroth..." I flinched and had my hands on both of my swords. Looking over I saw a hooded figure, just pressed against the fence. Carefully I pulled my hands to my side and walked over.

"He's...near...the mansion..." The person mumbled. What surprised me was that the voice was female. I was about three feet away when I pulled the cloaked figures hood down, keeping my fire materia handy.

I wasn't prepared to look at her.

Her skin was pure white, practically ghost like. She didn't have any hair and she was extremely skinny, there wasn't any sort of fat to her face, or anywhere on her head, skin and bones basically. I jumped back a little when she looked at me. Her eyes were blank. Pure white and yet she somehow acknowledged me. It was like looking at my insanity all over again.

"The Reunion...is near..." She pressed her face to the fence again. I ran into town.

"Guys! GUYS!" I yelled. Cloud was first to get me.

"What is it?"

"Sephiroth is here, one of the...people said he is in the mansion."

"Get everyone to the entrance." He told me before going ahead. I gathered the rest of the gang and lead them to the front entrance. Now with Cloud in tow, we all went inside. Inside it was extremely dusty. It still had the same overbearing feeling but the old creaking floor boards and the run down walls and furniture made it seem like some cheap haunted mansion.

"This place is even creepier." Yuffie declared.

"What are we looking for?" Asked Tifa.

"Spread out, find anything out of place." Everyone walked around the entrance area and the floors below. However it seemed the place never had anything of value. I checked every desk, drawer, box, I even stuck my hands down the cushions of chairs just to find a gil or two, what do I find? Nadda, zilch.

"Hey I found something!" Aeris yelled. Everyone came to see she had a dusty piece of paper.

"It was written by Hojo." She cleared her throat.

"I must get rid of all those that stand in the way of my research. Even that one from the Turks. I scientifically altered him, and put him to sleep in the basement. If you want to find him, then search the area. But… this is merely a game I thought of. It is not necessary for you to participate if you don't want to." She then read off the instructions.

"Move the dial of the safe carefully, but quickly. You have 20 seconds. You cannot go past the numbers while turning. The four hints for the numbers are…

Dial 1 – The lid of the box with the most oxygen.

Dial 2 – Behind the ivory's short of tea and ray.

Dial 3 – The creak in the floor near the chair on the second floor… then to the left five steps, up nine steps, left two steps and up six steps."

"Someone is trapped in here?" Muttered Tifa.

"We should help them." Said Nanaki.

"But there are only three hints. Where's the fourth?" Asked Barret.

"Aeris could I look at that?" She handed me the paper. I knew it was in invisible ink but I couldn't tell how to find the forth clue. What were the tricks everyone used? Lemon juice...no we don't have any...Heat! But where will I find...

I placed the paper over my fire materia and focused. I lit a small flame under the paper. Slowly the message started to become clear.

"Right, ninety seven." I gave Aeris the paper back. Looking around, I saw everyone was completely befuddled.

"How did you do that?" Yuffie asked, probably it was one of the "cool" things I would know like dual casting.

"How did you know?" asked Cloud suspiciously. I realized then I wasn't really supposed to know that was there.

"I smelled it." I blurted out.

"You...smelled it?" Was Barrets reply. I handed him the paper.

"Go on do it." Oh man I really wish he can smell something on there or I'm screwed. Barret took a whiff and his eyes widened.

"Urgh, it's like a dentist's office." Wait...he actually smelled something? Holy shit I'm in the clear!

Cloud took the paper from Barret and smelled as well. "Low grade, it was meant to be found this way." He gave the paper back to Aeris.

"I'll be upstairs looking for a creak on the floor." He walked off.

"Room with the most oxygen...I saw an atrium earlier. I will check." Nanaki said and went up as well.

"Why the hell do we get the hard one?" Asked Barret.

"You know it's not that hard, ivory short of tea and ray, it's a broken piano!" I said matter of factually.

"I saw one earlier, I'll look around." Tifa ran up the stairs.

"I'll check the safe upstairs, that's probably what this is all for." I went up and looked at the safe. What put me on edge was the boss battle...but the safe was four feet tall. How could a boss even pull something like that? The physics doesn't make sense, even in this world.

"Nate, we got the rest of the numbers." Yelled Barret from the other room.

"What is the combination?"

"Right thirty six, left ten, right fifty nine, and right ninety seven."

"Sweet!" I started turning the knob. Cloud came into the room.

"I got a bad feeling about this..." He mumbled. I got two numbers down.

"Me too." Third down.

A beat. I sighed, it's not like it will make the fight harder. Famous last words; just in case.

"...What could possibly go wrong?"

Click

(In the main entrance.)

Barret was getting impatient.

"You think someone is really trapped in this old hunk a junk?" He asked, blowing dust off a piece of furniture.

"Hojo is the worst kind of man, and he is always thorough in his reports. Someone is here." Aeris stated.

"But what could be in the safe?" Asked Tifa.

"Couldn't be anything too bad." Right when Barret ended his sentence there was a loud crash coming from the second floor.

"The hell was that?"

(nrml pov)

"Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit!" I ran down the stairs. "Everyone get ready!"

"Nathan what was that?" Tifa asked.

"Safe...physics...everything's wrong...kill now!" Cloud jumped down the steps as a gigantic monster tailed him. The monster had two different looks, one half of its body was purple with a green claw, the other was red with multiple spikes and tentacles for a leg. Cloud jumped down and out the way into the group. Everyone now getting serious as Lost Number followed.

"Aeris, paralyze it, it's powerful!" Cloud yelled. I was confused until I saw Aeris praying into her staff, Lost Number started to gloss over and become still.

"I can only hold it for a short time." She said.

"Everyone attack, don't let it out into the village!" Cloud yelled before making a deep gash in one of its legs, making it kneel down.

Barret proceeded to unload as much ammunition into the monster in the fastest possible time. Yuffie was cutting the creature consistently, Tifa using brute force to knock out the creature's other leg, Nanaki, Cait and myself were casting magic as back up. I was surprised at the effectiveness of Aeris's Seal Evil, with real time damage the monster was looking pretty morbid compared to its previous form. Maybe our team work and experience in battle made the fight seem easy, in the game you only had three people, but now with a large tactile squad, everything seemed easy. The Limit Break started to wear off and Lost Number attacked, albeit fruitlessly considering its current state.

Lost Number looked completely floored; when it tried to stand the wounds on its legs would keep it down. The bullet holes in its body had blood pouring out, and all the magic we cast left scorch marks all over its body.

I kept my guard up when it started to split though, and I mean split. Lost Number just tore itself with its bare hands in exact halves. The entire team was surprised, even more so when the purple side didn't just die but start to bubble out and increase in size until we had a full purple monster.

Everyone went into offensive mode again when it struck. I wished Aeris could perform Seal Evil again, but I had realized something about the physics behind Limit Breaks.

They, like any other technique are performed not because someone took enough damage, but because it's an ability they have. Kind of like Crisis Core, if Sephiroth was a playable character, Octoslash would be a Limit Break. Aeris had exhausted herself; she could barely cast cure spells on the group, let alone support. We were down one healer against the physical form of Lost Number.

Needless to say, when the battle was over everyone had bruises; well everyone except Cait, being a giant plushy toy just let him ignore fatigue. It took time, but everyone got the idea magic did the most damage, and considering how Cloud wanted everyone, including block head Barret, to have a few materia, Lost Number died. We took time to recover in the main entrance before we went back to the safe. Inside I was surprised we only found the basement key and the Odin materia. I looked at Nanaki who caught my glance.

We would have to talk about that in private.

"Cool, so we can help this guy now?" I asked.

"If there really is anyone stuck here, but I haven't seen any place to hold a person." Aeris replied, better than before, but not much.

"There's another part to the mansion, follow me." We all followed Cloud to the right wing of the second floor. Going into the bedroom, Cloud pressed a brick and opened a door to a twisting stairwell. Everyone was shocked while Cloud just looked depressed. We went down and saw the large cavern structure with some machines and boxes scattered about the place.

"Why does this town get creepier and creepier as we go?" I agreed with Yuffie.

"What went on down here?" Tifa asked.

"I never found out, I didn't explore when I went to confront Sephiroth before he went insane. But there are monsters down here, be careful." Everyone nodded and followed Cloud down a ladder. When we got down everyone looked around and saw multiple coffins.

"Are there...people inside?" Aeris looked terrified. Barret looked into one.

"No...just monster remains." We continued to walk through the corridor until Cloud stopped us.

"Listen." Everyone went silent. Trying to hear what Cloud was.

"I can't hear anything." I said.

"It sounds like...someone is sleeping." Aeris said.

"And shifting," Nanaki added. I still couldn't hear anything...maybe I should stop listening to my music so loudly when I get it back.

"It's coming from this direction." Cloud went up to one of the separate rooms and tried to open the steel door. Finding it was locked, I gave him the key, which he opened with everyone following. Inside were multiple open coffins, with one in the middle closed. It wasn't until now that I could hear the sifting and light breathing. Cloud went up slowly to the case and pushed it open.

Inside was a man with a very lean face. Long jet black hair was sprawled around inside. He wore a red bandanna as well as a red sort of cloak.

Vincent opened his crimson red eyes.

"...To wake me from the nightmare. Who is it?" The cover was blown across the room by an invisible force. Cloud backed into the group with his hand on his sword. Vincent lifted his upper body out of the coffin. He eyed the group with an emotionless face.

"...Never seen you before. You must leave." He stated immediately. Cloud let his hand fall from his sword.

"You were having a nightmare." Cloud explained.

"It sounded horrible...the way you groaned." Aeris said.

"We woke you up. Ya outta be thanking us." Barret yelled. I elbowed him to shut up.

"hmph..A nightmare...My long sleep has given me time to atone." He looked down. His voice was devoid of emotion. Seeing this in a person was giving me the creeps.

"What are you saying?" Cloud asked, trying to get some information out of him.

"I have nothing to say to strangers, get out. This mansion is the beginning of your nightmares." His eyes narrowed at the group. Cloud just looked down, clenching his fist.

"You could say that again." He shook his head. Vincent raised an eyebrow.

"What do you know?"

"Like you said, this mansion is the beginning of a nightmare...no, not a dream, it's for real. Sephiroth had lost his mind. He found the secrets in this mansion..."

"Sephiroth?" Vincent interrupted. Cloud saw the look of familiarity in his eyes.

"You know Sephiroth?" Both said at the same time. It was almost comical. My amusement turned to amazement when Vincent had flipped out of his coffin. What was amazing was he actually did it in a slow motion fashion, defying gravity, and landing perfectly on his steel shoes on the edge of the coffin.

"You first," He pointed at Cloud with his clawed gauntlet. Although a little hesitant, Cloud told him the group's story. He explained about his time in SOLDIER with Sephiroth examining the Nibel reactor, how he came to the conclusion he was made different and came to the mansion, finding out he was Jenova's "son" and burned the village down and was defeated the same day in the reactor. He explained how five years later he had somehow returned and that the whole group was out to stop him from getting to the Promised Land. During the whole story Vincent didn't say a word. He listened intently, his face passive the entire time.

"And that's how it is," Cloud finished.

"So Sephiroth found out how he was created five years ago? And about the Jenova project? He was missing, but recently reappeared. He has taken many lives, and seeks the Promised Land?" He said all of this out loud more to himself than to us as questions.

"Now it's your turn," pushed Cloud.

"I'm sorry...I can't speak." He said, letting out a sad sigh.

"Why you lying, white faced!..."

"Barret, if I have to, I will use your gun as a gag, now calm your shit." I scolded him. He seemed to stand still for the time being.

Vincent jumped back into the coffin. "Hearing your story has added upon me yet another sin. More nightmares shall come to me now, more than I previously had...please...leave." By the same invisible force the coffin top went back on Vincent's coffin as he lay down.

"How sad..." Aeris mumbled.

"Who needs him? Come on Cloud, let's go." Barret insisted. Cloud looked at the coffin and Barret before sighing.

"He's free now, it doesn't matter what we want to do. He chooses to be here." Cloud left the room everyone started to follo...waitwaitwait...

I stared at the leaving group. Just like that? No more questions? He's just a depressed man and Cloud leaves him? Sure respecting his wishes but seriously?

I sighed. I would have to get the ball rolling on the other optional character.

"Nate, you coming?" Cait asked. I ignored the cat and went to the coffin.

"Nate what are you doing?" Nanaki asked. Now the group was looking back into the room. I pushed the top off. Looking down I was being stared at by very menacing, and annoyed, red eyes.

"You're still here." His voice didn't betray any emotion. I composed myself to ask the right questions.

"Who are you; at least tell us your name." He looked at me for a good minute before sighing.

"I was with... the Shinra Manufacturing Department in Administrative Research. Otherwise known as..." He struggled to remember for a second.

"The Turks...Vincent." The whole group was back in the room, all ready to take up arms hearing the new information.

"The Turks?" Cloud burst out.

"Formerly...of the Turks." he emphasized the word. "I have no affiliation with Shinra now...and you?" He was focusing now on the group again. Cloud stepped forward.

"Cloud, formerly of SOLDIER."

"You were also in Shinra? Then do you know Lucrecia?" He actually sounded a little hopeful.

"Who?" Cloud brought that train of thought down fast.

"...Lucrecia." Vincent stated. Cloud shook his head. "The woman who gave birth to Sephiroth." That got everyone's attention.

"Gave...birth...I thought Jenova was Sephiroth's mother." Cloud said, confused. Vincent just blinked.

"That isn't completely wrong. But just a theory. He was born from a beautiful lady. She was Lucrecia, an assistant to Professor Gast of the Jenova project. Beautiful...Lucrecia..."

"A human experiment," Cloud concluded.

"That's horrible, how could someone do that?" Tifa exclaimed.

"There was no way to cancel the experiment." He looked back down.

"I couldn't stop her. That is my sin. I let the one I loved, the one I respected the most, face the worst." I felt my heart drop. It was like he wanted to cry, but couldn't.

"So you lock yourself up to make up for it? That's weird." Yuffie stated. He ignored her and just laid back down into his coffin. Having satisfied the group's curiosity, everyone left this time. We all continued down the hall until we opened another steel door and found a very interesting room.

It was an old laboratory. Old books were scattered everywhere on the ground, most of them eaten away by time and the environment around it. There were glass pods to house experiments in that were now broken. The lights were dusted over, having not been used for years. The group looked around the room. Cloud slowly walked around, taking in every detail, until he stopped at the hallway.

"Sephiroth!" Everyone looked over and saw across the way. The silver haired general was looking at a bookshelf, smiling. Everyone was near the entrance, ready to fight.

"Being here brings back memories." He focused his eyes on Cloud now. "Are you going to participate in the Reunion?" He asked.

"I don't even know what the Reunion is!" Cloud yelled.

"Jenova will be at the Reunion. Jenova will join the Reunion and become the calamity from the skies." He said casually.

"Jenova, a calamity from the skies? You mean she wasn't an Ancient!" Sephiroth's smile dropped.

"...I see. I don't think you have a right to participate. I will go north past Mt. Nibel. If you wish to follow...then follow. You are more than welcome to bring guests." Sephiroth's grin returned while looking at the group, everyone shuddered. I knew he was implying me though.

"Reunion? Calamity of the skies? Sephiroth you aren't making any sense!" The man in question then threw something at Cloud, it was fast enough I could just barely tell it was a materia, but it hit him before he could ask any further questions and then Sephiroth floated into the air, flying past the group before anyone could take any action.

"Damn it, we had him." Cloud coughed out.

"Like hell we did, he threw a materia at you and flew away!" I was still amazed at the sight.

"Nate's right Cloud, he caught us off guard, but we know where he's going." Tifa said. Cloud nodded and got back up. We took the materia and started to leave the basement. Cloud especially now that he had caught sight of Sephiroth. I was happy though, we were going to leave Nibelheim. I didn't want to stay here, it was a very unnatural town filled with lies and the pain of one of my friend's lives.

I hope I never come back here.

* * *

><p>AN If anyone is wondering I thought this chappa was a little lack luster, so i made it slightly longer to compensate. Till next time audience!


	21. Chapter 21

A/N I really have no excuse for posting this on the latest day possible. I got lazy this week and just waited till the last minute. Because of this I decided to make a longer chapter for you, my audience. I hope you enjoy. and happy MLK day

Ch 21

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><p><strong>ATE<strong>

Normally, a person would be overjoyed at social interactions with people after being isolated for so long. Vincent just wanted what peace he could get, people just interrupted that peace. He couldn't go back to sleep now, thinking of the odd bunch that seemed to have freed him. The group that did pass by did allow him to awake and think after some time. But the thoughts that circled only made him hate himself more.

Sephiroth had become a monster, finding his birthright made him go insane, and now he was a force to be reckoned with, laying claim to the Planet and wanting blood. It only saddened him to know this was yet another sin he had to repent for, and the only way was to seal himself away. His immortality made it so that he couldn't kill himself, no matter what wound he would have inflicted, it would heal. He tried multiple times to kill himself before he finally thought of simply letting time pass him by.

_You weakling._

He agreed. He was a weakling. But sealing himself wasn't just to repent. He would be a danger with Chaos sealed inside of him. The monster would whisper when he dreamed, telling him he could take the pain of it all away, soothe Vincent's soul if he gave him control. But Vincent was no fool, he was one of the best in the Turks after all, as long as he lived and had the Protomateria, Chaos couldn't escape. Yet how could he ever be forgiven for letting Lucrecia go along with Hojo's madness. What could he possibly do now?

He thought back to the group again. How they were going to fight Sephiroth to save the Planet. Vincent thought it futile. Hearing how Sephiroth became so powerful only to go mad for more sealed the Planet's fate. Yet they would still defy logic, just for a chance.

_Humans, what worthless creatures you are. But you're all so amusing._

Vincent groaned and ignored Chaos' voice. Perhaps he could try to repent differently. Lucrecia wouldn't have wanted him to be like this, he acknowledged that. But letting Hojo take her child, and then experiment on himself for so long…

Vincent may have turned into a monster, but knowing one such as Hojo lived made his blood boil. The knowledge that the mad man still lived to experiment on humans and do as he wished while Vincent slept… If anyone had to repent for their sins, to suffer for eternity, to feel the pain Vincent felt, then Hojo deserved it the most.

Maybe the group would find him. Following Sephiroth would inevitably lead to a confrontation with every Shinra executive trying to block them. He heard some voices. The group from before was now walking the opposite direction of the study. If they would try something such as saving the Planet, then he could help them so they could help him. He'd help fight Shinra, and they would lead him to Hojo. It was mutually beneficial.

He pushed the coffin cover off, got up, and surveyed his surroundings. He wouldn't return here, not until Hojo was dead. Then he could have a little peace that Lucrecia had been avenged. He pulled out the gun in his holster and checked it. He'd slept for how long? Twenty years...maybe more, yet one of his most reliable weapons was in still working condition, even if he was caught off guard, he could transform still. He holstered his gun and ran out the door, intent on catching up to the group.

"Wait!" The group turned to him.

"If I go with you, will I meet Hojo?" Cloud shrugged.

"Don't know, but we're after him and Sephiroth. So I guess sooner or later..."

"Lucrecia...I've decided to join you." The reactions were ranged. Some shocked, surprised, the large man of the group looked irritated, their large feline had little emotion, the one with glasses smiled, and their leader was thoughtful.

"Being a former Turk, I may be of help to you."

"Alright then," Cloud agreed. Vincent nodded and followed the group. The planet may have changed while he was gone, but he would find Hojo no matter what.

"So now we have a vampire helping us. This is the best team ever!" The young girl exclaimed. The man with glasses and two swords just held in his laughter. Vincent looked at both who caught his gaze. The girl looked straight ahead, and the boy just nodded back at him and kept walking.

A very eccentric group to play heroes...

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><p>I was sweating buckets on the inside. Vincent was looking at me and I tried to keep a good poker face, but on the inside I felt like my soul was in a vice grip; and he was just looking at the back of my head. Everyone eventually left the mansion and took what supplies we could from the buggy. I was sad we had to start walking again. Cloud and Tifa knew the terrain very well. Traveling by car would be too dangerous considering narrow paths as well as Nibel dragons being in the area. But even if we had these dangers around, I liked the hike; it gave me a sense of familiarity with the mountains. Thinking about the monsters I decided to add the gravity materia to my arsenal. I was a little peeved that now I could not add anymore to my armlet, but I would let it slide. We left the town and started hiking up the mountain. Other than the occasional giant grasshopper and those bird monsters native to the mountain, we were good. It wouldn't be until deeper into the mountains that we would have to worry about dragons. So I decided to experiment with my materia a little.<p>

I found out gravity actually had a physical manifestation like all other spells. It was a ball essentially; roughly the size of a tennis ball, so as the percentages got bigger, so would the ball. I cast the spell on a few rocks to see how it worked and found it basically compressed and expanded. I could see how damaged a body would be if it one second had a ton of pressure on it and then the next be light as a feather, it hurts like hell and it's disorientating.

My kind of magic.

"Alright we're going to split into two teams. One will stay here with the pipes while the other explores more. The exploration team will be myself, Nathan, Aeris, and Vincent. Stay on guard," Cloud ordered and we followed. I was surprised how easily Vince would take orders though, he didn't object, question, or comment. I expected some inquisitions on why Cloud was the leader or something.

"Cloud is this a way through the mountain?" Asked Aeris, he shook his head.

"He said north. I'm not sure he meant past the mountain, or to the reactor. I'm going in case he is at the reactor." I guess that makes sense, Sephiroth has only been seen by us in major places that have affected Cloud's life.

"So Vincent, how big were you during your time in the Turks?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Before I was locked away, I was one of the highest ranked members due to my exceptional skills with long range weapons." He replied rather blandly.

"Really, can you shoot the wings off a fly while under pressure?" He only glanced at me.

"I was good at my job, simple as that." He said, avoiding the question I asked. I was a little disappointed. Can't say I didn't expect it, Vincent was always cold and indifferent, much like how Cloud was arrogant from the start about his first class skills. Soon enough we came to the reactor with Cloud standing in front of it, as if confronting the thing.

"You think he could be here?" Aeris asked.

"I'll check, you'll all know if anything bad happens. Call everyone else and give me some support." He went inside the reactor, I sighed.

"I worry about him." Aeris stated.

"I'm sure everyone else does too Aeris, but this helps him I think, I don't think he'll find Sephiroth, but he will come to terms with his past more." I explained.

"Sephiroth became powerful with time...what makes you think your group can take him?" Vincent asked.

"We're here to help Cloud really, all of us are here for different reasons, going after Sephiroth is what seems to be a threat we can all go against." Aeris explained. I nodded. Vincent just stood guard, not acknowledging Aeris's answer. Within a few minutes Cloud came out.

"Let's get back with the rest of the group."

"Wait a minute Cloud, since we're here, let's scavenge a little." I asked. Since we already went out of the way, he agreed. I felt more at ease about our future boss battle. Vincent got the sniper left around and some ammo while we picked up an extra elemental materia, I kept mine instead of switching out for experience.

Beep beep beep

Aw god, my phone is ringing. I hate getting phone calls on this thing; it just reminds me Rufus is a total bum hug for stealing my phone.

Click "City morgue, we slash'em and bag'em." Not a single person in the group laughed, Aeris didn't even give me a pity giggle.

"Nathan this is not the time to be joking around," Tifa said on the other line.

"What's wrong?"

"We can see the exit out of the mountain, but there is a very large monster blocking the way, we need you guys to get here so we can take it down." I groaned. I never liked the materia keeper battle. After going through the whole Nibel mountain stage I had to fight a boss. It reminded me too much of Pokemon when Gary Oak would appear at the most annoying times.

"On our way." I hung up. "There's a monster at the exit, we have to kill it." I stated. It was Cloud that groaned this time.

"It's about three to five times the size of Barret?"

"How did you guess?"

"I'm noticing a pattern during our travels." That's RPG's for you Cloud; you can't go a day without at least one boss fight. We got back with the rest of the group in the pipe room. Tifa just pointed down and we looked over the edge. Sure enough, the giant scorpion thing was prowling around.

"Why the hell is there always a big monster?"

"Join the club Barret," I said. "So Cloud, what's the plan?"

"Barret and Vincent will stay on this platform and shot at it when possible, that sniper will actually help in this battle so go for head shots. The rest of us will follow the basics, fighters get up close, magic casters at medium range, and supporters heal when you can." He held up his hand with Sense materia and looked like he hyper focused on the boss.

"Nanaki, it's weak against poison so you attack as much as you can so it starts to wear down. Nathan, it absorbs fire so if you cast anything, make it lightning. Let's move." We all climbed down and pulled out our weapons. We couldn't surprise the monster, it knew we were in its territory, and it wasn't just going to stand around so we could get the element of surprise. The boss charged at us, we split off and it stopped, not knowing which group to go for until Nanaki took a lunge at one of its legs. It tried to pry him off, but Cloud and Tifa tried to attack at two of its other legs. The monster used its extra appendages to keep Cloud at bay and knock Tifa against the wall. It decided to ignore Nanaki since his attacks hadn't inflicted it with anything yet and swiped at Cloud and me. Cloud jumped out the way while I just collapsed on the ground and came up when the claw passed.

Knowing it missed both of us; it slammed into a nearby wall, throwing Nanaki off. When it tried to attack, it got a flurry of bullets to its side and one to its head and a megaphone scream. Now disorientated, Aeris tried to cast some cure magic onto Nanaki. Tifa came back and decided to smash the ever living daylights out of the monster's face. What surprised me was when she did the somersault off its face before it could attack her. I guess Tifa's limit break needs time more than anything. The boss finally came to its senses and set its sights on Aeris, Nanaki and Cait. Cloud came in to distract it, but it got a lucky hit in and knocked him away. The creature stopped for a second before a large pyramid of energy appeared and was launched at Aeris, Cait, and Nanaki.

The result was a huge electrical discharge that zapped not only them, but anyone in close enough proximity. Cloud tried to save them but was hit with a particularly powerful bolt and Tifa had to jump back from the monster.

"Barret, distract it so we can get everyone!" Cloud yelled. A spray hit the monster's head and Vincent took another shot, but from a high location. The monster couldn't reach either, so in its confusion Tifa and myself went to pick up the Thrine attack victims. Aeris and Nanaki were easy enough to get away but Cait was just a ton of dead weight and wasn't budging an inch.

"Cait, get a move on! They can't keep that thing away for long!" When I shook the mog, the cat just leaned forward.

"I forgot you were robotic, probably rebooting your connection. Shit."

"Nate, get Cait away. The monster's done!" Cloud yelled while materia keeper decided to go for easier targets and spotted us.

"Oh god!" I turned, I didn't think Cait would be able to wake up soon enough. Suddenly an idea came to me

"Why didn't I think of this before?" I focused on my materia arm and started channeling a bolt two spell onto my fist. Hopefully with my elemental now level two, I wouldn't have to worry about having nerve damage. The lightning started to crackle in the middle of my palm before it started to grow, the lightning not just concentrating in my hand but pulsating up and down my arm, I was ecstatic, I was now a human conductor. I saw Materia keeper get ready to charge at me with its horn, I cocked back my fist.

"It doesn't sound like one thousand chirping birds, but I don't think it will hurt any less." Materia keeper started running so I got myself in perfect position. Right when the monster was going to gouge me, I punched as hard as I could. I knew I didn't have the strength like Tifa to keep the thing away, but I got a good hit on the side of its face before it could make contact. The boss recoiled and hit a wall instead. I had a very satisfied smile on my face hearing it in pain. I sheathed the sword and pulled out Fusion in case it got ideas to attack again.

"What happened?" I looked back and saw a now perfectly fine Cait Sith.

"You were shocked, you idiot! I had to keep the stupid monster away from you. Next time, be more-" I was slapped across the cavern before I could finish. I wanted to get up but my legs were scraped badly and my hands were too numb to do anything.

"I gotcha!" Yuffie jumped over and cast a cure spell on me. I got up shaking. She handed me my sword and threw her shuriken. It cut the monster on one of the limbs, but it did hurt the monster. I stood when the boss decided to cast cure on itself.

"Just keep at it so it can't do that again." Cloud then activated his Deathblow materia and cleaved one of the legs clean off the monster, however when he tried to use it again, the magic used to enhance the blade just blew back making his slash veer off from its target. Nanaki came back in but was casting poison as much as he could, the boss was actually looking a sickly green and its attacks were getting sloppy. While Cait made another shout attack, Tifa and I focused on one leg. While I cut, she pummeled the wounds I made causing the leg to go limp. Barret kept spraying while Vincent was still calm and took shots at its head. Aeris was back in and was healing who she could while the monster was being bombarded from all sides. In the end it was one more head-shot from Vincent that took the monster down. The group was tired by the end of the whole battle. I just collapsed on the rough ground so I could get a breather.

"Everyone okay?" Cloud checked, he himself looked winded.

"Everyone's healed; a few of us just need some rest." Aeris came up with the rest of the group.

"Thanks for saving me, I was in trouble there." Cait said from his moogle. Barret and Vince climbed down.

"Man I'm glad I wasn't in the middle of that." Barret smiled.

"Don't count your luck; you won't get a position like that again." I caught my breath and got up. I looked at Vince.

"You were right when you said you were the best, I didn't see a single head-shot miss." I nodded.

"And I suppose your attack was...original," He...complimented? I noted that he didn't seem all that interested or affected by the battle. He looked a little annoyed actually.

"Let's leave, once we're outside we can set up tents. Barret and Vincent will take first shift, then Cait and myself. Everyone else can rest. Let's go." Everyone followed Cloud out the cave and finally the mountain. We were now in a very clear and grassy area, a town about a dot in the distance. Everyone set up tents and made a fire, anyone who was hurt extensively was given bandages to help wounds heal while cures took effect. I tried scratching at the ones on my knees and my forehead only to have a hand swat them away.

"Tifa come on, they're itchy."

"Nathan stop being childish, if you pick at them then they're only going to get worse. You're lucky you didn't get a concussion." Tifa said, now sporting bandages on her arms and legs.

"But I didn't, I hit the thing hard enough that it was confused when it knocked me away."

"That was awesome, was that that one the falcon attack you talked about?" Chipped in Yuffie, who I noted was on my left, near my materia arm.

"That was very dangerous Nathan, didn't you learn the last time?" Tifa scolded

"Tifa, I have a level two elemental now, probably gunna be mastered soon anyway. I don't have to worry about those attacks hurting me now, and no Yuffie that was called Chidori...well not really the exact same thing but it's like a lightning version of the falcon punch " I folded my arms. Yuffie looked miffed and walked away, I smiled.

"It's interesting you had the mental fortitude to do that" Vincent said from the other side of the fire. I shrugged. Aeris walked by and explained.

"Nathan has a gift with magic, he can channel it in ways that are near impossible, then again he is the group's genius." I raised an eyebrow at the statement. I even think I heard Vincent snort a little.

"That's weird to hear Aeris, what makes you think that?" I asked. Cloud finally sat by the fire.

"Don't think we haven't forgotten your inventions back at Shinra tower, you had items on you that were advanced even by Shinra standards. Your skills with magic reflect your mental capabilities, it's the only way I can explain how you haven't died from exhaustion yet." I rubbed the back of my head at the compliments. Considering I lied about most of this I really wasn't comfortable with them, I looked over and saw Nanaki with what seemed like the lion's equivalent of a smirk. Eventually everyone was done eating and resting by the fire and went into their respective tents while the guards searched for monsters nearby. I roomed with Nanaki again and made sure everyone was asleep or far away enough to talk to him.

"Okay I wanted to talk at the mansion but I could sense this is classified." He sighed.

"Did something not go how the story was supposed to?" I shook my head.

"No...well yes, kinda. The battle we had with the monster in the safe gave us a key and a materia, but there was supposed to be something else...a final limit break." He paid a little more attention now. I explained how the games mechanics worked back in Cosmo and ultimate limits were something not to poke fun at.

"Who's?"

"Yours," I simply said. His eyes widened a little.

"That's odd." He stated.

"I know, it's been wrecking my brain for a while. Nanaki, do you have some kind of clan technique or something?" He nodded.

"Many of my skills are from my clan's fighting style to protect Cosmo."

"Were any of them named Cosmo Memory?" He eyes were now fully opened. It took him a minute to speak to me though.

"Even secrets aren't safe from you, are they?" He asked rhetorically. I just waited for him to continue.

"Cosmo Memory is a very powerful and special ability that my species can perform, due to its destructive abilities; it is only to be used in the most dire of circumstances."

"So you already know it?" I was surprised to learn this. He nodded. "Then I guess it's okay, it will come in handy in the future, but I don't think anyone else has that luxury like you. They will have to learn or control theirs." He nodded again and lay back down. I decided to sleep too; tomorrow would be a very fun day with a very old loudmouth.

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><p><strong>ATE<strong>

Rufus was enjoying himself at the moment. He was glad that the day after tomorrow he would be able to get a vehicle to help their search for Sephiroth. The trail with AVALANCHE was beginning to grow cold. He was currently enjoying music while signing company documents. Soon he would be on his way to Rocket Town. He happened to hear a phone call though and stopped listening to pick it up.

"Yes."

"It's Tseng."

"Tseng, I am happy to hear from you, how goes your investigation?"

"It's done." Rufus was happy; having a Turk investigate the island was a good idea considering how fast the job was done.

"And your report?"

"Nothing sir," Rufus's smiled was immediately replaced with a frown.

"What do you mean nothing?"

"I checked the hospital, mayor's records, even went to civilians personally to see who knew Mr. River."

"So by nothing you mean..."

"He doesn't exist sir," Rufus' irritation was now replaced by surprise.

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes."

"Thank you Tseng." He hung up. Now contemplating what was going on. The one person to survive an encounter with Sephiroth in the tower, someone who peaked Hojo's interest, as well as have a connection to Jenova, was never born. This only made his appearance more annoying. Before he could finish his thoughts, he got another call.

"Reeve sir."

"This is unexpected Reeve. You usually hand in your report in the morning."

"It can't wait. I came across some odd information as well as possibly run into something." Rufus pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Report."

"We had run into Sephiroth. He had mentioned something about a Reunion. We picked up a Turk, and are about a mornings travel from Rocket town." Now Rufus was intrigued.

"A Turk you say?"

"One Vincent Valentine sir. He was apparently one of Hojo's experiments." Rufus wrote the name down. He would have to investigate files on another person. He sighed; he had to work later now.

"The Reunion?"

"I'm not sure. He didn't say anything specific."

"We will have to ask Hojo then. I will also have to the leave for my meeting with Highwind early. Anything else to report?" The line was quiet for a second before Reeve spoke.

"We may have a small problem with River." Rufus clenched his fist.

"How small?"

"He seems to know Cait Sith is controlled from an outside location."

"Explain."

"Cait was stuck by a powerful electrical spell; it caused him to short circuit a little before being rebooted so I could control him again. But while he was vulnerable to attack, River protected him, but acknowledged he was robotic and the connection was down."

"Does he know it's controlled by you or any other Shinra executive?"

"I'm not sure, but I recommend caution sir, my reports may be inconsistent if he suspects anything and examines Cait." Rufus now had a headache. AVALANCHE has a former Shinra employee with them and now someone who doesn't technically exist knows more about them than they do him.

"That will be all Reeve, I ask that you keep watch on River a little more now. He is now a high profile target along with their leader Strife."

"Yes sir." Rufus hung up. It was going to be a long night now.

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><p>The next day everyone started traveling across the fields. We had little trouble with monsters along the way, now having three long range fighters. Vincent was better than I thought with his handgun, nailing either head shots or disabling shots at what I believe was one-hundred percent of the time. By mid-morning we were able to reach Rocket Town. It was a small and very quiet town; it looked like any other village far away from the city. The one thing that stood out was the rusted rocket in the back of the village tilted to the side.<p>

"I see Rocket Town lives up to its name," I said out loud, awed at seeing a real rocket in person for the first time in my life.

"I've never heard of anything like this" Aeris said.

"It used to be a part of Shinra's space program. I'm not sure what happened but I hear it was abandoned, don't know why though." Cloud said.

"Shinra has become very advanced while I was gone." Vincent mumbled. I looked over.

"What do you mean?"

"There were only talks of the possibility of going into space, I have been asleep for a long time, even you PHS is new to me." Wow, PHS weren't used twenty years ago? Technology really jumped in twenty years...actually that happened to earth the exact same way, can't say I'm too surprised.

"Everyone split up; find what you can about Sephiroth. Meet back here in ten." Everyone nodded and walked off in their own little groups; mine consisted of Nanaki and for some reason Cait Sith. I opted to head to the town shop first to get me some sweets. What made me mad about this whole trip was that every time I wanted to use just a little gil for some candy it was "wasteful." Inside the item shop I got me a few candy bars and a handful of hard candy before asking the owner if someone that fit Sephiroth's description came by. He said that he never saw anyone, so I asked if someone around town may have, so he told me to look for the Captain, or Cid basically. We walked back to the meeting spot and saw everyone else was already there.

"What did you find out?" Asked Tifa.

"No Sephiroth, and something about a Captain."

"Everyone was referred to the "Captain," at least I know where he lives, let's go check it out." The group went to the closest house to the rocket and Cloud knocked, no one answered though so he knocked again. After that he just simply walked in the door.

"Cloud, why the hell did you just walk through?" I asked.

"It was open." He supplied. I shook my head.

"Cloud, I would love to hear what goes on in your head when you knock, no one answers, and you decided to walk into their house." Going through the back door everyone looked at the faded red plane.

"It has the Shinra logo on it, Tiny Bronco...this is cool." Cloud said with a smile.

"I wonder why it's all the way out here though, shouldn't it be at Junon at least?" Tifa asked.

"Maybe Shinra has something going on here." Nanaki added.

"um...may I help you?" Everyone turned to see a nervous woman in a lab coat.

"No we're just looking at it." Cloud said. I am seriously questioning how she didn't scream at the eight people suddenly in her back yard.

"If you want to use it, you'll have to ask the Captain, he should be inside the rocket. I'm Shera, what are your names?"

"I'm Cloud."

"Barret, Tifa, and Nathan of AVALANCHE." I introduced.

"Red." Am I the only person who calls Nanaki by his real name here? I just noticed that.

"Yuffie, the Single White Rose of Wutai!" Que overly dramatic and useless pose.

"Aeris, a flower girl." She said with a smile. And Vincent really didn't introduce himself so Aeris told Shera his name.

"So you're not with Shinra. I thought the approval for the reopening of the Space Program came. President Rufus is scheduled to come here, the Captain's been restless all morning" She looked relieved and walked in her house.

"Rufus?" Cloud yelled.

"God damn Shinra is at every turn." Barret said.

"What should we do?" I asked.

"We should talk to the Captain; this plane could be useful for finding Sephiroth." Everyone left the house and went towards the rocket. When we got to the base of the rocket, only a handful of people wanted to go in.

"Like hell I'm climbing this tall ass ladder." Barret said.

"Barret, if you can climb a steel rope with one arm this will be a cinch." I argued.

"You go up then since you got both hands!"

"Anyone else not going?" Cloud asked, already starting on the ladder.

"Not me, too big." Cait said.

"My dress will get caught." Aeris said, which was a fair enough reason.

"Too hard without Barret to carry me." Was Nanaki's reply.

"I won't either." Okay why wouldn't Tifa? She doesn't have a fear of heights as far as I can tell, and she doesn't have any clothes to get in the way, all she wears is the skir...I'll shut up now.

In the end it was Cloud, myself, Vincent and Yuffie who went up. I focused on looking up rather than down so I ignored any jeers from Barret while going up. I was the last one to climb up and into the rocket.

"What are you guys doin here?" I heard an aggravated voice. I looked over and saw Cid looking at the other three with a very serious look on his face.

"We heard the captain was here." Answered Cloud, which got the old man to smile and boast about himself being the captain, but his real name was Cid. You know seeing him in person I really couldn't tell he was thirty something years old, guy looks like he's in his prime.

"So what do you want?"

"Could you tell us about the rocket?" Cloud asked. Cid was more than happy too and talked about how Shinra invented the rocket engine and chose the best pilot in the world to use it. Then on the day of the launch Shera apparently screwed up the whole thing so Shinra scalped the whole project and went on to Mako. He looked a little depressed after the whole story.

"Can we ask you another question?" Cloud asked.

"Fine, what is it?"

"Can we borrow the Tiny Bronco?" Cloud cut straight to the point and Cid looked very unhappy.

"Are you out of your fucking mind? That's my most cherished possession I won't let you take that!" Correction, he was more pissed at the question then unhappy.

"If you don't have any more business then scram, I'm tryin to work here." He went back to his switch board and mumbled about dumb people younger than him. Yuffie almost went to beat him senseless, but I held onto her until she went down the ladder.

"Any luck?" Barret asked, Cloud just shook his head.

"Let's go back and see if we can get Shera to agree." Everyone followed Cloud back to the house to see Shera expecting us.

"What did he say?"

"Nope."

"Cloud, I think nope is overly generalized; he called us out of our fucking minds." I said. And right then the front door opened for everyone to see the man in question walk in and eye the whole group.

"Shit! Shera are you blind! We got guests, Make Some TEA, FUCK!" He barked. Shera quickly apologized and started boiling some water. Everyone who wasn't on the rocket was completely confused at the scene.

"Really, don't mind us." Cloud tried to be polite. Cid just pointed at him.

"Shut up! Sit your ass down in that chair and drink your GODDAMN TEA!"

"Three spoonfuls of sugar and a little milk please." I said now sitting down at the table.

"ARGH, Damn I'm pissed! Shera! I'll be out back tunin up the Bronco. And make sure to serve some tea! Alright? Good!" He then proceeded to walk past the group and out the back door. Everyone besides me in the room had no idea what happened or how to react.

"The hell was with that guy's attitude?" Barret recovered first.

"I know, he could give you a run for your money!" I laughed out. He glared but I shrugged it off.

"Who does he think he is?" Yuffie yelled. Cloud just sighed before looking at Shera.

"Sorry, it's our fault." She was now pouring the tea into cups.

"No, no. He's always like this." She waved it off.

"How can you live with this?" Asked Aeris.

"No, it's because of my stupid mistake. I was the one who destroyed his dream" She berated herself.

"What happened?" Cloud asked. She explained how she was one of the mechanics assigned to the rocket during its launch date. How Cid was so happy to get his dream come true, to be the first man in space. Everything seemed as if it would follow through. But before the launch, Cid found out Shera was still examining a fault in the oxygen tanks so she told him to launch anyway even though it would kill her. Cid, having to choose either his dream or killing her decided to abort the launch and save her life. Since then, she blamed herself for him saving her and giving up his one chance at getting his dream, so she would live her life for him.

"You'll take everything he throws at you?" Aeris asked. Shera nodded.

"That's why it's alright; I don't care what the Captain says." Another door slam and Cid walked back in, still with the same scowl on his face.

"Shera! You still haven't served them tea? What's wrong with you?" She mumbled an apology and started serving everyone. Cid drank his with gusto and I sipped at mine. I never did like tea, but this is actually really good, the perfect blend of sugar and herbs. Everyone else just stood around holding their cups.

"Hurry up and sit down! Or ain't my hospitality good enough for you?" Everyone found a seat somewhere and took sips of tea. There was a really awkward silence going on in the room though, something I couldn't possibly let go on, so I finished my cup. Cid was done with his as well and was smoking a cigarette.

"Thank you for the tea, it was delicious." I leaned into my chair. Cid just nodded.

"That's one thing Shera's good for, she makes some good ass tea...none of the rest of you want to say anything about the tea?" Almost everyone had small mumbles of it being good and fine, Cloud just waved him off and Vincent just took another sip. For about five minutes the room was back to the awkward silence, Shera offered me more and I accepted, Barret finished after me but he refused another cup prompting Cid to yell at him about it not being good enough for him. I almost laughed the entire time.

"They're late...Where's Rufus?" Enter fat man in brown suit. Almost everyone save a few froze at the Shinra executive's entrance; I just wanted to finish my tea.

"Hey-HEY. Long time no see! So Cid, how ya been?" Palmer said ignoring the stares and glares directed at him.

"Well if it ain't fat man Palmer. How long were you figurin on keeping me here waitin? When's the program gunna start up again?"

"I don't know, the president's outside right now, ask him."

"Damn it! Good for nothing fat sack a shit!"

"Don't call me fat!" Wow, out of all that you responded to fat? Really shows how much he knows himself, I am actually astonished.

"Hey tea! Can I have some? With lottsa honey and sugar, oh yeah and don't forget the lard!" Everyone looked disgusted at the request except Shera who was actually starting to comply. Cloud and a few others ran outside to see what was going on while I just finished my drink, trying to hold it down while Palmer drank his and went out back. Shera went out the door to get the rest of the gang so I got up and stretched.

"You all want to use the Tiny Bronco right?" Cloud nodded.

"I think Palmer is going to take it, why don't you ask him." Everyone seemed to book it for the back door before we were all outside, looking at the man examine the now spinning propellers.

"Oh man, why do I have to do this? I'm head of the Space Program."

"Wasn't the program cut? Doesn't that make you just some fat guy in a suit acting like he's an executive?"

"Hey! Don't call me fat!" He turned and yelled.

"We'll be taking the Tiny Bronco," Cloud said now holding his sword.

"I've seen you somewhere before...the Shinra building when the President was killed. Security!" He yelled but no one came.

"Looks like your outta luck." Barret said reading his arm.

"I won't go down now!" Palmer pulled out a complicated gun and pointed at us.

"You think some puny little pistol will take us all out?" The response was a shot that was a giant fireball coming towards the group. Everyone jumped out the way.

"Hey Barret, lets antagonize the guy with the gun. It will be awesome, I'm sure!"

"Nate, you mess with me all the time and I got a gun!"

"Yeah, but I know you can't shoot me!" Another shot, this time a large icicle crashed near us. What really pissed me off was that Palmer was really fast for being an old fat dude. Not our kind but enough to play keep away from us. But all we needed was one good shot and he would chicken out.

"Vincent, just bust his knee caps so we can be done with this." This was never in my opinion a boss battle even when this was all a game. Vincent aimed and fired off three warning shots around his legs and torso. He froze when the shots were made.

"I'm feeling generous, we'll let you run and live and we take the Bronco." Cloud said. The man was red faced and yelled.

"I won't forget this!" He ran out the back yard and into the town. I would have worried about him getting Rufus, but the minute the thought entered Palmer was hit by a Shinra security truck.

"Man I love this game." I mumbled.

"It's not stopping, the plane keeps moving!" I saw Yuffie looking in the cockpit of the plane while everyone else was trying to find a way to stop the plane.

"Forget it, just get on the wings! We're getting out of here!" Cloud yelled getting inside while a few people held on; I jumped on and felt the plane turn.

"Cloud, are you insane? How the hell is anyone going to keep on this thing?" I yelled, apparently the glass was sound proof from the inside and he just pointed for me to hold on. In a few seconds the plane was up in the air and circling the rocket. I almost fell, had it not been for Cait who pulled me down to hold onto the wing. When we started ascending, I felt every bit of the G-force pile onto me.

"OH GOD LET ME OFF! I DON"T WANT TO STAY ON!" I yelled.

"THIS IS INSANE!" Barret yelled hanging on with his one arm. I looked over and saw Yuffie trying to hold on with one hand and cover her mouth with the other, which almost made me sick. Nanaki was being held by Vincent who had his claw hand sunk pretty deeply into the wing and Aeris and Tifa were on the tails. Cloud, who I assumed had never flown a plane before, went down to the ground and just passed Cid and Rufus. Rufus ducked while Cid started hauling ass to catch the plane while he was being shot at. I would have cheered if it wasn't for the whole wind pulling my face back while holding on for dear life thing going on. Cid was able to hop on right when a stray bullet hit the tail near Aeris.

"Shit! The tail's been hit!" Cid hit the glass pane on top of Cloud.

"Prepare for emergency landing." That did not sound good.

"This is gunna be a big splash! Hang on to your drawers and don't piss'em!" Cloud tried to slow down and stop the plane but we hit the water early. As I was only holding on to the edge of the front of the wing, I was thrown off and into the water. I surfaced soon enough and clung for dear life to the plane.

"Is everyone here?"

"My fucking Plane!" Well, Cid was okay.

"I'm fine." Barret was sitting on the wing.

"Same here." Said Cait.

" Aeris and I are okay." Tifa called.

"We're good." Nanaki said for Vincent and himself.

"Nate where are you?" Aeris yelled.

"Near the cockpit." I climbed up and flopped next to Barret. "I will never be scared to ride a roller-coaster again in my life."

"So that leaves-" Before Cloud could finish, Yuffie ran to the side of the plane and began throwing up. "That's everyone." Cid was ignoring the whole ordeal and checking the tail with a few tools that were on his person. He threw them all into the water though.

"She won't fly anymore." He sat back and lit a smoke.

"Can we use it as a boat?" Man you have got to admire Cloud; he sees opportunity in damn near everything.

"Shit, do whatever you want, I don't care anymore." He said letting a puff out. Cloud had a look of contemplation on his face before he talked to Cid again.

"Cid, what are you going to do now?" The man in question just let out another puff, looking at the continent in the distance.

"Hell I don't know. I have a history with Shinra and I've given up on my town."

"What about your wife Shera?" Cid just guffawed.

"Wife? Don't make me laugh! Just thinkin about marryin that woman sends chills down my spine." He let his cigarette butt fall into the ocean.

"What are you guys gunna do now you have a boat?"

"We're going after Sephiroth, we'll eventually run into Rufus and Shinra though."

"Don't know anything bout that, but..." Cid reached under the plane and pulled out a spear he had attached on the bottom. "What the hell, sign me up!"

"How bout it everyone?" No one really said no, but the only people to really agree to having his help was Tifa, myself, Aeris, and a slightly annoyed Barret. Nanaki and Vincent really didn't care and Yuffie was still blowing chunks.

"Glad to be aboard numbskulls!" Cloud looked offended.

"Numbskulls?"

"Sure, anyone stupid enough to go against Shinra nowadays has got to be a numbskull. I like it!" Cloud took a calming breath but I just laughed. He sent a glare my way but I smiled.

"So where we headin? Rufus said he was going after that Sephiroth guy to the Temple of the Ancients." Everyone was now paying attention to the man.

"A temple? Where?" Aeris pleaded. Cid just shrugged and scratched his chin.

"Don't know, little shit said they were headin the wrong way, so I guess that way." He pointed what looked like south. I noticed out the corner of my eye Yuffie having a glint in hers

"Alright let's go and see what we can find on land and collect information then." Right then Yuffie pounced.

"We should head to Wutai! I bet they have lots of information." She sounded a little too happy. Cloud looked thoughtful.

"I really doubt we'll find anything there, we should just go to the main continent and start there." I saw Yuffie's face drop slightly. I really was going to hate myself later for doing this, but it's good for getting items in the future...for the greater good I guess.

"Yuffie might be on to something Cloud." I said. Everyone looked surprised, the biggest being Yuffie herself looking like a deer in the headlights.

"Just think, we've seen Sephiroth in places he had connections to. Midgar, Junon, Nibelheim. He was the man who ended the Wutai war. He could possibly be going there." Cloud was considering the information; I decided to add the kicker.

"Plus isn't Wutai a traditional village without Mako? They have a ton of old documents, maybe a few will be about the temple." I looked over and saw Aeris nodding her head like she understood the reasoning.

"You make a good point; it's almost too good to pass up. Lets dock on the beach and start heading for Wutai, we're close enough to the island, and Yuffie can be our guide." I saw Yuffie with the biggest scamming grin I had ever seen her have. I muttered a few apologies and temporary goodbyes to my materia.

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><p>Thank you everyone, till next time in the chase for the Single White Rose of Wutai to get everyone's stuff back!<p> 


	22. Chapter 22

A/N Hey guys good to be on time this week and I have a few things to say. kingdomlily had noticed how my story isn't flooded with reviews, which is when I noticed we officially passed the 100 review marker, and being all positive, i now technically have a fan base! I heave read each and everyone one of your reviews audience and i am pleased!

Go figure...anyway I have a longer chapter again but i am going to break down for my reviewer botoingness (formally Ingness ) and post early next week, but you will all get two chapters! sometime during Wednesday and the next weekend, so thank him for that.

Also I have been feeling good because I have been developing ideas that seem amazing for later in the story, and to those who asked about chronological order of games, there will be a few cameos from Before Crisis and Crisis Core so don't worry, and if this story is as good as i hope it will be in the future, MAYBE i will develop a story for what happens after Dirge of Cerberus as a big mix.

Speaking of story ideas after my birthday in February I will have Asura's Wrath. After seeing that game i got a crazy awesome idea! If i have down time after or even during stranger in the sky I'll make a God of War and Asura's Wrath crossover. There is a severe lacking of crossovers in general, let alone finished ones! I would also like to mention on a side note there aren't enough Claymore fics, WoW self inserts, Mass Effect and Fallout crossovers, and to many of those fics where girls insert themselves into a story and everything just turns into pandemonium( I have only read a few where guys did this so no offense to the ladies).

Final note yes I am still accepting ideas for attacks in the fic, and don't be afraid to ask about an idea you want in here, you may be surprised on what i might put in. And thank Saria19 for bet reading this thing, lord knows what would happen if i didn't have her, so enjoy chappa 22.

P.S I kept a ridiculous line from the game in here, spot it you get props mentioned in the next A/N.

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><p>CH 22<p>

The ride towards Wutai was rather uneventful. I would have loved to sit on the wing of a plane, the propeller making wind to cool me down, and enjoy the views of the Wutaian Mountains coming into view, or look at the vast blue horizon. Sadly I never got to experience any of this due to Yuffie getting sick and me having to comfort her the entire time. When I argued that she could just upchuck into the sea as much as she wanted, Cloud oh so kindly reminded me she was technically my responsibility, which now apparently included her health. Honestly I'm going to have to cure her motion sickness by the time the team gets the Highwind or I'm going to be swamped with this crap.

"Are we at the beach yet?" She feebly asked.

"Not yet, now be quiet and keep puking." She did just that too. Lucky for me I decided to comfort her on the wing Vincent sat on. One thing I liked about Vince was the guy never spoke unless spoken to, or he was actually curious about something. Plus the dude had an air about him that made conversation die down, so it was always quiet around him, which put me at ease about the whole Yuffie's going to steal then return my materia thing.

I had run a ton of ideas but none of them really stuck, if I slept she would search me. Sure she was a girl, but she was a tomboy and as much as I hated to say it, an expert in her profession. She was thorough when it came to knowing what the team had on them. I remembered when we were low on supplies coming out of Nibelheim she knew exactly what we were low on and what we needed, and no one else questioned it.

The end of that day we appointed our resident thief supplies manager...I thought it was a good idea, everyone keeps their own money and materia and she didn't seem interested in my candy or anyone else's food. But getting back on topic, Yuffie, no matter what, would always have a way to get my materia from me. The only way I could guarantee not losing mine so we had a chance with Rapps later would be to guard our camp until she steals from everyone else. Sure I'll lack of sleep, but it will be worth it.

"Alright, let's get going, Yuffie you lead the way." Cloud ordered when we landed. Yuffie went to the front of the group, so I went to the back. She said since we didn't travel like ninjas it would take two days to get there. So the group went through the Wutai Mountains.

"This place is beautiful. I've hardly seen a place as untouched as this." Aeris said as she looked out onto the lush green mountains.

"Why doesn't Wutai have a reactor?" Barrett asked Yuffie turned.

"Shinra didn't place one here for some reason, after the war they could have but they only took down our military and were given free rein to do what they wanted." I heard her explain. It really sucked; Wutai was attacked because Shinra thought they were closer to getting the Promised Land. I wondered what it was like before the war. Actually while thinking about that what are the Wutanese? It's implied they're Japanese, but I need to hear them to be sure. Maybe I'll be surprised.

"The sun's starting to set, so let's set up camp." Cloud said.

"I'll guard." Yuffie cheerfully volunteered

"I'll take the second shift." I quickly added.

"You don't need to do that Nate, I can watch the night."

"No I insist, you need your rest as much as anyone else, an extra lookout could help"

"I don't mind, I know this place like the back of my hand, we aren't near any danger."

"We can't be too careful."

"I can mind the camp," she said through clenched teeth.

"Both of you enough, Yuffie, you'll go first, Nathan you take second shift," Cloud concluded. The rest of the day went on like normal, although it was obvious that Yuffie was a little reserved from the rest of the group, at least it was to me. When everyone went to bed, I pretended to sleep. Sure enough I heard rustling coming from the other tents when it was late enough. I do have to give Yuffie credit, being able to steal from the group with two enhanced humans was no easy feat. Eventually I heard the zipper for my tent open so I slowed my breath and calmed down to act like I was sleeping while facing away from the opening. I had cracked my eye a little to see her hand reach for my armlet with surgeon like movements, though I did hear a few mumbles about being difficult. I yawned and her hand flew back, I slowly got up and stretched.

"My turn already? Oh well." I still had roughly thirty minutes before my turn but I needed to make sure my materia was safe. I walked out and saw Yuffie pretending to look around the camp.

"You're up early." I held back a smile at how she sounded just a little angry.

"Anxious I guess." I sat down across from her.

"You should get your sleep; it's only been a few hours."

"Nah, I can function on less." That was a complete lie, the least I needed would be five hours. Now having stayed up and having to continue until sun up would make it so I was up for almost twenty four hours. The battle with Shinra tomorrow would be shit, but I would have my material, and I would be better off.

She sighed. "I guess I'll go to bed then." She walked into her tent and zipped it up, but not entirely. So for the rest of the night to the early morning I kept watch. It sucked... immensely.

I knew Yuffie kept an eye on me most of the night just in case I fell asleep on the job which I did do at the end when I was the last shift, so I had the feeling of being watched constantly on my back, that was fun. Next was actually staying awake the entire time. Being a regular guy and not trained like everyone else with experience, my body would keep trying to force me to sleep. This caused me to find ways to keep awake in the most interesting of ways. One idea was to give myself a spark to keep me up. But Bolt apparently has a set minimum power level at taser; needless to say I kept my elemental in my bangle the rest of the night. Other times I would doze off, thing is I have a tendency to lean on my legs to sleep, and a fire being in front of me spelled disaster. I avoided a very deadly incident, making it so I kept myself as far away from the fire just in case I did doze off, so I was cold through the night too. In the end I ate most of my candy to keep myself a little energized so my body could work through the exhaustion to keep warm.

At least the sunrise was nice...

"Nathan, look at you!" Everybody was up now, Aeris was the first to comment on how I looked.

"Shit kid, your eyes are almost as red as the vampire." Vincent made no comment to Cid's comparison.

"Did you get a good night's sleep?" Tifa asked.

"I can keep traveling, it's okay."

"That's not what I asked Nate." She deadpanned.

"I'm fine, look." I tried to stand only to wobble badly and almost fall back if it weren't for Tifa grabbing my shirt.

"You must have been up the entire time." Glad to know Tifa watches the group's health.

"Nathan, that was a dumb move." Cloud said.

"In my defense, I felt like I was being watched most of the night." Which was true, Yuffie never got her chance though. I won... it didn't feel as good as I thought it would.

One reward was the immediate slap to the back of my head.

"Stupid, I told you I didn't need you, now look at yourself." Yuffie scolded me. I would have laughed if I had the energy.

"Come on everyone, let's get going." Cloud urged. Everyone packed up and started moving again. I was at the back of the pack again, but for a different reason than staying away from Yuffie.

"Damn it Nate, hurry up, you're slowing everyone down." Barret yelled.

"You know this actually has perks to it, I barely processed Barret's yelling." I joked, while speeding up a little.

"Are we there yet?" Cait asked. Yuffie turned and stopped the group.

"A few hours, but it's only going to get tougher from here on out."

"Why the hell would you only tell us now?" Barret argued.

"It would have been better to know earlier." Cloud folded his arms. Yuffie rubbed the back of her head.

"Actually it's going to get REALLY tough." She looked down.

"Yuffie what's going on?" Tifa asked.

"There they are! Catch them!" Everyone perked up at the order and saw multiple Shinra MP's come out of hiding and point their guns at the team.

"Shinra?" Cloud had his hand on the Buster sword.

"That's not them; these are the other guys from before." The soldiers were confused, their guns only wavering for a second. Cloud glared at the ninja.

"You planned this?" She started waving her hands frantically.

"I didn't know! I had nothing to do with this one!" She covered her mouth immediately.

"So you were planning something!" Barret yelled. Before anyone could interrogate further, the MP's attacked the group, Yuffie running away while the group had six military men around us.

"Everyone drop your weapons and put your hands in the air." One yelled.

"I have a better idea, duck." I shot a fireball at the man but he went against my advice and didn't move, getting fried upon impact from my high level fire spell.

"Take'em down!" The leader most likely yelled. The MP's tried to tranquilize the team most the time, the only other weapons they had were grenades and the close proximity the group usually fought made it impossible for them to use them without inflicting self harm Needless to say we won with only a few cuts and scratches even with the lack of magic.

"I knew something was wrong! My materias missing!"

"Mine too!" Aeris said, looking at the empty containers on her pole.

"Mine's gone too." Cait said, having the large moogle search itself.

"I can't find mine either." Nanaki said.

"Where could they have gone?" Tifa asked. It took only a split second for Barret to connect the dots.

"That punk ass kid! She was after our materia from the start UHHHHHHHHHHH!" Barret raged when I heard somebody laugh, he looked over to Cid.

"You think this is funny?"

"Hell yeah I do, the little shit took all of your magic." Cid said with a smile.

"How can you laugh, all of our materia was taken!" Barret was getting really red in the face.

"She must have stolen them last night." Cloud grumbled.

"Like I care, I didn't have any materia, you didn't give me any yet. Vince over there never used the junk, and the other kid still has his." Cid pointed out. I could understand Cid not having materia yet, but I found it odd Vincent never used them.

"Wait, Nate you have all of yours?" Barret calmed down at the new information.

"Yeah, I was up all night remember, I still have Bolt, Fire, Gravity and my-" I looked at my last materia slot and my eyes widened.

My Elemental was gone.

"Wait a minute, that's not right, I was awake all night. She never had a chance to steal from me."

"Are you sure?" Asked Aeris. I shook my head.

"Yeah, I didn't get any sleep, she never touched me!" I remembered her trying to reach in my tent while I was asleep, keeping an eye on me through the night, the slap to the back of the head, she never would have...

"The slap was a distraction..." I was more amazed than angry; she was able to take one materia from me while I wasn't thinking straight.

"I've had it with her! She was headin north, let's get our materia back!" Barret yelled again. Cloud nodded.

"We'll be able to get to the village about noon, let's go." Cloud ordered the group. Though it didn't take long for the village to come into view, the monsters that we would try to avoid were a pain in the ass. This only served to piss Barret off even more until we got to the village.

Wutai was exactingly as I expected it to be, a traditional style Japanese village. The buildings had the cool design, there was a tall tower not too far away and everyone that was walking around the village were wearing kimonos and such. It kind of reminded me of when I went to Japan for a week during eighth grade, brings back such good memories.

"There she is!" Barret interrupted my thoughts when Yuffie was spotted. She froze when she saw us but started running afterward.

"Don't run!" Barret yelled again. The group tried to follow her, but even though she was a loud mouthed and would boast about her skills being so much better than ours even when she needed our support, we had lost her.

"Everyone split up into groups of two, Nathan you're with me." Everyone split and searched. I went up to one of the citizens.

"Excuse me; have you seen a ninja about five foot two, really loud?" I was promptly ignored and the citizen basically ran away from me.

"I guess they don't like tourists."

"Nathan we need to find her, where could she be?"

"Hey Cloud, she made it sound like she was famous here, let's ask the villages leader. Maybe he knows something about Yuffie we could use."

"How are we going to get information if no one talks to us?"

"Look for the fanciest house, I know these cultures and usually nobles have better and bigger places." Cloud nodded so he followed me. Going farther into the village we came across the tower and a house that was bigger than the rest, a clan symbol was placed at the entrance of the property. Taking a page from Clouds book I barged into the house and we looked around. Eventually we opened up one room to see an aged looking man just lying down on a mat in the middle of the room, his facial hair in disarray.

"Gahhh, what do you want?" He turned to look at us.

"Are you the noble of this house?" I asked politely, I really didn't want to get on Godo's bad side.

"I am Godo." He stated before he yawned. "Don't have...GAH...much for you; you can rest yourselves here if...GOO...you want. Make yourselves at home." He said while stretching and readjusting himself on the ground. Obviously trying to fall back asleep.

"We are looking for a girl named Yuffi," Cloud said. Godo just waved his hand.

"Yuffie? ... never heard of her." He started to snore after that. Cloud had the nerve to tap the man with his foot to wake him back up.

"You again? I told you once and I'll tell you again, I don't know her."

"She said she was born in Wutai." Finally the man gave up on trying to sleep and sat up.

"Listen, I said I didn't know her! There isn't anyone here named Yuffie in Wutai!" He got up and finally took a good long look at the both of us.

"Never seen you here before... Lately I've seen Shinra all over the place, you wouldn't have anything to do with them would you?"

"No, we had just gotten here, although AVALANCHE is being pursued-" Godo held up his hand and Cloud stopped.

"I don't care who you are, but if you're in trouble with Shinra then I'll have to ask you to leave. I don't want Shinra here looking over my shoulder."

"What's with you, you coward?" The three of us looked around for the new voice. When in the open doorway she had dropped to the ground.

"Yuffie?" Godo was shocked.

"You scared of Shinra? Then why don't you fall in line and obey them, just like all the other towns!" She pointed at us.

"These guys are the ones who are really fighting Shinra!"

"Shut up! What would you know about this?" Cloud and I forgot about Yuffie to witness the exchange.

"You get beaten once, and then that's it? What happened to the mighty Wutai I used to know?"

"No kid like you is going to talk to me like that. You keep acting like that. You should be ashamed of yourself!"

"That's my style! And it's my own business, not yours! You don't try and dictate what I do!"

"Style? Dictate? Throwing around those words, you're a miserable daughter!"

"You're a sad excuse for a father!" The man chased Yuffie out before coming back into the room.

"I apologize, she is very boisterous." Godo bowed his head.

"It isn't a problem; you helped us find her anyway. Have a nice day." I dragged Cloud out before anything else could be said. We went back into town where everyone else was waiting.

"You find her?" Asked Nanaki.

"Yes, but she got away, but we don't have to search there anymore."

"I think we should stick together, we'll be able to catch her if it's all of us." Tifa suggested. Everyone nodded.

"So where to?" Aeris asked.

"Maybe there will be some sociable people at the bar. I know how easy it is to get info from a drunk." Cid said. I froze a little hearing everyone agree with him. I didn't know what would happen in the bar after what happened at Gongaga. Reno would most definitely be pissed to see me again. The group started to move and I found myself just going with them. We entered the bar and the first thing that everyone in the group noticed were the three people in deep blue suits. One of which was staring right at us.

"Y-y-y-you? How did you get here?" Reno and Rude looked over at the group and I noticed a few extra features. Reno's suit looked a little puffy on one side, then I thought about what happened and assumed it was because of bandages. Elena jumped up from her chair.

"Never mind that. I guess it's fate that brought us together. Get ready to die!" She got in her fighting stance.

"You know half of that sounded like a love confession, it was kind of funny how passionate you sounded." She looked very frustrated when I said that. Before she could attack Reno held out his weapon in front of her, taking a sip of what was most likely alcohol.

"Elena...you talk too much." She was shocked hearing that from her superior.

"What?"

"What were we doing way out here in the middle of nowhere yo?" He asked.

"We're taking our vacation and resting up from work." She stated it like it was a report. Man, she needs to cut loose.

"And now our vacations ruined." Reno stared at Elena, funny I would have thought he would blame us for that.

"But..." Elena tried to defend only to have Rude speak over her.

"Even the booze tastes bad now." He said with absolutely no emotion. He was just staring at his half a glass of liquor. Elena looked between the two and sighed.

"Sorry." She went back to her seat.

"Now what are you jerks doing here?" Reno asked.

"One of our teammates stole our materia, we're searching for her." Cloud answered. Reno just snorted.

"Haven't seen the kid," he stated, then he looked at me. "I don't want any shit from you yo. We aren't on the job so kicking each other's asses is only going to make the booze worse." He took another sip. The rest of the group was satisfied and left. I hung back a little and reach into my pack counting out the gil, I had about 3000. As much as monsters are pain in the asses, I was getting some decent coin from their corpses. I went to the counter laid down 500.

"What can you give me for this?" Though the Wutaians didn't like having strangers here, the bar keep wasn't dumb enough to ignore a good customer.

"One of our better brews of Sake, a whole bottle in fact." He took the money and went to a corner in his liquor cabinet. When he pulled it out, he actually blew some dust off it and handed it to me.

"Enjoy kid." I smiled at that. I guess there was an age difference for drinking here. I took the bottle and walked towards the Turks table, when I set the bottle down the reactions were varied.

Elena was shocked, Rude lifted an eyebrow, and Reno was ready to pounce.

"Truce." I said. I left the bottle and exited the bar. Reno wasn't a bad guy, nor were the others. They were just doing their jobs. Hopefully this would be good enough incentive to stop any future fights in the game. I caught up to the group.

"Alright, let's keep looking around." Everyone nodded and divided into groups of three plus one group of two to get Yuffie. Cloud and I were still the group of two. We entered one building which was the item shop. The two workers gave us a glare then ignored us. Cloud looked around and saw the crate near the back. He went to open it and found a materia, before he could ask to buy it though Yuffie jumped down from the rafters and took it right out of his hand and sprinted out the door. Cloud blinked once before chasing after her outside and he lost her. We walked around the weapons store and inside to see if she was in the rafters like last time.

"Cloud she got away again!" Aeris came into the shop. "We found her in someone's house and she ran off."

"Get everyone together." She nodded and went back outside. Cloud and I were standing near the bar when everyone else came back.

"Slippery little cretin, isn't she," Cid said with half a smoke.

"She keeps finding places to hide...where could she be?" Cloud thought out-loud.

"Did that pot just move?"

"Nathan we don't need distractions right now."

"No, I'm serious its bumping around." The group looked as I pointed to the large pot next to the bar. Cloud silently motioned for everyone to take positions along the fence and bridge exits. Everyone was in place when he got up close and started punching the pot. Over time cracks started to appear until the ninja jumped out and slipped past Cloud only to run into the group one person after another before Cloud got a good grip on her.

"You can't get away Yuffie." Her eyes were shifting around, looking for an exit, not finding any.

"Okay I know, I was wrong. You win; I'll give you back your materia." Yuffie tore her arm back and made us follow her into her house. She went downstairs and the group went in to find some kind of training room lined with statues and weapons.

"I've been hearing it ever since I was little. Before I was born Wutai was more crowded, more important." She walked past the group.

"Have you seen it now? ... just a resort town. After we lost the war, we got peace, but with that we lost something else. Now look at Wutai."She was now at the entrance, on the verge of tears.

"That's why if I had lots of materia I could-"

"Listen Yuffie, I don't care about the history of Wutai or your feelings. You've got our materia and I want it back...now."

And the winner for the coldest motherfucker in the entire history of existence from before to the future and of all time is none other than Cloud Strife! He must feel proud at his achievements ladies and gentlemen!

"If you give it back now, we'll drop the whole thing" The girl sighed.

"I know, I know that." She really started to tear up now. "That switch on the left..sniff...materias in there." Cloud walked up to the machine in the room and pulled on the left switch. Only to have the rest of the group including myself placed in a cage.

"What the hell!" Barret yelled.

"She got us again." Nanaki said.

"Ha Ha ha. Never trust anyone that easy! The materias mine, tough! If you want it, go find it yourself! When you're looking for the materia, remember you got to steel it! HA get it? Steel!" She then ran off with Cloud slamming the machine and flipping the lever so everyone was released.

"You know Cloud, if you played along a little then maybe she could have possibly given us at least one materia...probably." I knew she wouldn't have given any but seeing Cloud's angry face was too funny to pass up.

"Stop making jokes and catch her." He said before running ahead with everyone else following. I stopped and looked around for the final Turtles Paradise poster. I took the stub, thinking about celebrating killing Rapps with some drinks at the bar.

* * *

><p><strong>ATE<strong>

"The kid buys me breakfast, then I kick his ass. He kicks my ass, then buys me decent booze...I don't understand." Reno said enjoying a glass of the liquor he was just bought.

"Why are you drinking it? He is an enemy of Shinra." Elena said sipping at a glass of wine.

"Like I'm gunna deny free anything, especially if it's good alcohol. Rude try some yo." The stoic man poured himself a cup and drank.

"You two are unbelievable. He's a high priority target now. I read the message we were sent." Reno remembered the new orders to consider the magic hyped kid a real threat. But he ignored it since they still had vacation time. He gave up on the grudge with him. He realized that in the end it would only end with both of them beaten to hell and their teams dragging them off and they would have to keep pursuing them, causing the scene to happen again. Reno just thought it would be better just to stop giving a damn, and the free drink helped his resolve.

Two Shinra soldiers barged into the place. Elena jumped up and stood at attention while the MP's started talking

"Our reports are right, he is on vacation here! We found him, get the Turks for support." The minute Reno heard that he slammed his head onto the table, getting everyone's attention.

"What a drag." If they weren't after AVALANCHE, they were needed somewhere else. Reno was considering quitting until he remembered how much the job paid.

"Right now we're off duty and can't run off to save your butts."

"We know you're off duty but-"

"If you knew that then don't bother us! Now get out, just looking at you is making me sober."

"But you all have orders to look for him too!" one of the MP's argued, only to have Reno not answer him and keep drinking. The other soldier just shook his head.

"Alright fine, we catch him without any help from the Turks, just you see! And don't think headquarters isn't going to hear about this!" Both soldiers ran out leaving a slightly stunned Elena.

"Reno, do you think that was really such a good idea? I mean is that the way a professional Turk should act?" Reno got up and stared at his subordinate.

"You misunderstand. A pro isn't someone who sacrifices himself for his job. That's just a fool."

"Rude?" Elana asked, hoping to get a different response. The only one she got was the man sighing and downing another glass.

"Well I don't buy that, good bye!" Elena ran off. Reno just sat there while Rude looked at him.

"Relax, she's not a child. Let her have her way now yo" Another drink. "God that's good, shame she didn't drink any of this."

* * *

><p>The group had searched most of the village by now. Yuffie was nowhere to be seen and everyone was getting restless. I was already at rock bottom so I was good, it's actually kind of cool, I feel like I'm using weighted clothes, and everything warbles like I'm under water when I get really tired.<p>

"Where haven't we looked?" Cloud groaned.

"Have we checked every building?" Cait asked.

"Yes we have, we've check every house." He reassured.

"What about the rest of Godo's place, we only visited his house, what about that temple thing next door?" I mentioned. Cloud's eyes widened and he ran off. We got to the place and looked around the temple without finding anything. I rang the bell and heard a loud click from the side. The rest of the gang and I went in to find Yuffie being held up by someone.

"Let go! I SAID LET GO! Who do you think you are! What are you doing jerk!" The man ignored her and ran further into the treasure room. Cloud walked in only to be surprised by who was inside as well.

"You?" The man in question turned around and laughed. Corneo was wearing his signature red pimp coat, suit shirt, and his really dumb curly bit of hair on the rest of his bald head.

"Corneo?"

"Finally I've got a new chicky! Two for one in fact!"

"Two?"

"Hey let me go! You're going to regret this!" Elena yelled from farther back into the room. The crony just ignored her. They ran up the stairs with everyone else following while I took what I could from the room.

"Who was that?" Nanaki asked.

"Corneo, we had to fight him to get information. Apparently he's on the run now," Tifa explained. The group got up the stairs to see the fat man cornered by Shinra guards.

"There he is! It's Corneo, don't let him get away! Attack!" The guards started shooting only to have the coward duck and roll while the group had to defend themselves from the shots. I got annoyed and shot a level two Bolt at a man and threw him across the room only to see him get back up, and me having a large headache. I didn't know I was running low on magic, I need an ether. The group took care of the soldiers but Corneo escaped. I was clutching my head, still getting my bearings.

"Nathan you need to stop casting magic, you're already too tired to do anything and you're pushing your mind too far." Cloud said. I nodded, no more magic. We ran through Godo's house and outside to see the other two Turks standing at the stair entrance.

"That Corneo is good at escaping." Reno was rubbing his head, probably having a headache too.

"Elena." Rude mumbled. Reno shook his head and looked at his partner.

"Let's go Rude. We'll give'em a taste of what the Turks can do." Rude nodded and ran ahead. Reno looked back to us.

"If Elena is in his hands, that's going to make things difficult."

"He took Yuffie from us and without her we can't get our materia back." Cloud said.

"Don't misunderstand, we aren't joining you...but considering the circumstances we won't bother each other...guys, you guys will get your truce after all."

"Fine with us, we have no intention of cooperating with the Turks...now what direction did you see Corneo go?" Cloud asked; a little embarrassed he didn't catch where he went. Reno had a smirk on his face.

"Nice attitude, here's a clue; it's the place that stands out the most." Then Reno ran off down the stairs with a slightly annoyed looking Cloud left behind him.

"Turks, even when they help you they make things difficult."

"I don't know Cloud; it isn't all that hard to figure out." He looked at me.

"Fine then, you figure it out. The tower there stood out the most in the town so where else could they be?" I smiled and pretended to think.

"Have you ever noticed how cool those mountains look?" I asked, the whole group looked over at the large carvings on the mountain. Cloud groaned and just ran in the direction of the mountains. Eventually we were at the bottom of the mountains with the two Turks waiting.

"Took you long enough, we're going to split in two, you do whatever you want but don't endanger Elena, and we won't do anything to endanger Yuffie." Everyone agreed and split up into groups when the Turks left. I got paired with Vincent and started heading for what was the right direction while everyone else was running around searching.

"LET...ME...GO!" I heard and looked at Vincent who nodded. We started sneaking around the rocks to see Corneo on one of the mountain carvings hands with Yuffie and Elena strapped to its eyes.

"Hmm, delicious, scrumptious! I think I found a new hobby!" I was completely disgusted by what he was talking about. I was about to run in when Vincent stopped me.

"Don't get hasty. Wait for the opportune moment, then strike." I keeled back down.

"Should I go...with HER?" Corneo looked at Elena who had the same face I did.

"Hey, I'm one of the Turks! Don't think you can get away with this!" Corneo ignored her and danced around looking at Yuffie.

"Or...maybe...HER?" Yuffie looked extremely annoyed

"Oh god, if I knew this was going to happen I would have taken rope escape lessons more seriously." Well her fault for not taking her training seriously, I guess she also missed the lesson where ninjas are very silent.

"I have made my choice! My companion for the night will be...the cheerful one!" Yuffie looked horrified.

"GROSSNESS! Don't mess with me old man! You don't even have any materia!"

"Oh and she's saucy too! Whee, wheee!" I was about to concentrate a bolt spell when someone from behind me and Vincent ran up to Corneo.

"Alright, that's it!" Cloud burst. I clenched my teeth thinking about how he ruined our ambush. Vincent just went with the group with me following.

"Who's there? What's going on?" Corneo was looking around until everyone was on the arm of the carving.

"Oh thank god, Cloud, Nathan, get me down!"

"Oh long time no see," Corneo said looking at the group.

"You damn Midgar hyena!" Barret yelled aiming his gun.

"We should have taken care of you back at Midgar." Tifa yelled. Corneo looked angry.

"Be quiet! None of you know how much I've suffered since then...it's a long story but..."

"Don't give a shit, let the ladies go or everyone is going to personally give you a large case of Whup-ass." I yelled.

"Oh you're all serious...good, good. I don't have time to be messing around either, but why did you kill my little Aps? How about I make you play with my new pet! That way you can't get in the way of me searching for a bride!" Corneo whistled and called out.

"Rapps come here!" From behind him, flapping its wings, was what looked like a wyvern.

"Attack!" Corneo yelled and Rapps screeched. It started flying over the group with the only ones attacking being Barret and Vincent with their guns. Rapps stopped only to start flapping its wings faster than usual which caused everyone to cover their faces while the dust blew around.

"What is it doing?" Nanaki yelled above the winds.

"Everyone! Get off the arm!" I heard Cloud yell so I peeked out of my eyelids to see the winds get stronger and strike the group. What was bad was the wind didn't just knock us back but it actually cut everyone up. I was almost blown off if I didn't hold onto Barret.

"Everyone get back, that attack will knock someone off." Cloud said retreating across the mountains shoulder along with Nanaki, Aeris, and Tifa.

"We can still attack!" Barret yelled, shooting at the monster which took a few hits but kept flying around. Vincent couldn't get a good shot in since the monster kept flying around.

"Nathan you can't do anything without getting exhausted, get back." Nanaki yelled. I ignored him and opened up my travel pack to pick out one of many items I had stolen through the journey. I took the scroll and untied the rope around it and waited for the monster to get close. When it came to strike I unfurled the swift bolt scroll towards Rapps and sure enough a strong lightning bolt flew out of the paper and into the monster, stunning it enough to let Vincent get a few shots, but not enough to take the thing down.

"Damn it, I'm out!" I heard Barret yell. He got off the arm leaving only Vince and me. Vincent looked like he was running low on ammo to so he put his gun away.

"This is a losing battle until it gets closer, get back!" Cloud yelled. Vincent looked at him and the group before taking off his headband and handed it to me.

"Hold this." I was confused when Vincent took off his red cape and started breathing heavily. Slowly his body was changing colors and bulging, him groaning in what sounded like pain while he metamorphosed into a larger creature. Horns started protruding from his head and he gained a snout. He was now twice his original size and completely purple. The group along with myself were staring at the transformation before he roared. He was now the Galian beast.

"What the hell just happened?" I heard Barret yell. The beast started running up the carvings face, using his claws to keep him attached to the mountain when it jumped and started attacking Rapps midair. The monster took a lot of slashes before Galian fell back onto the mountain. It took a large breath and spit out what looked like solid orbs of lava. When the orbs were close to the monster they exploded in heat and fire, causing the flying monster to screech and fly farther away. I cursed; even though Vincent could take Rapps by himself, it still had the advantage of flying over him. I looked at my bangle; my materia glinted when I ran over to the Galian beast now waiting for its prey on the arm.

"Nathan he's dangerous, let him fight!" I ignored Barret's yell and got next to the beast. It looked and snarled at me, but I took the fact he wasn't tearing me to shreds as a good sign.

"Not sure if you understand, but I'll take him down, you keep him down." I got in my fighting position seeing the beast snort and look at Rapps preparing another Aero three. I formed an orb using gravity in my hand and waited for the monster to fly over the statue before throwing the ball ahead of the monster.

"Press!" I yelled and focused magic on the flying ball. Rapps was close enough to feel the sudden shift in gravity and was forced onto the statue's head. The beast started running up the face, passing Yuffie and Elena and started tearing at Rapps. The wyvern kept trying to strike the beast with its tail, but without the ability to fly, Galian was able to keep hacking at the creature. My headache came back with a vengeance and I fell to the ground. Galian had already torn one of the monsters wings and had the monster by its long neck. It then chose to throw the now one winged dragon off the mountian, it screeching while it tried to flap its one wing only to plummet to the ground. The beast jumped back down and started shrinking and becoming paler. Eventually Vincent was in front of me again, having a coughing fit and sweating. I held out my hand to give him back his headband and he tied it around his head, still exhausted from the transformation. The group came back, Cloud coming forward with his sword in hand. Corneo was taking the scene with wide eyes

"Wait...wait a second..."

"SHUT UP!" Cloud yelled.

"Just listen to me, it won't take long. Why do you think a bad guy like me would swallow his pride and plead for his life?"

"Because he thinks he could win." After Cloud said that he realized what was going on.

"RIGHT!" He pulled out a controller and pressed a button. Elena and Yuffie both flipped upside down.

"If I push this button, they'll fall and then we'll have squashed tomatoes!" He yelled smiling. Everyone was debating if they should attack, risking the girls lives.

"I guess I'll be the one laughing last!"

"No, that would be us." Corneo looked around for the new voice.

"Who goes there?" Looking behind the group I saw Reno casually walk up onto the statue's thumb and look at Corneo.

"The Turks?"

"You knew this was going to happen ever since you leaked the secret. We're going to take care of you personally." Corneo looked between him and our group while holding the controller before he became angry.

"Damn it I'm taking them with me!" Before he could press the button a rock smashed into his head knocking him back off the hand. However he was lucky enough to grab hold of the statue.

"Good timing Rude, nice throw." Reno said before walking to the edge, placing his foot on Corneo's hand.

"Alright Corneo, this will be quick, so listen up." He ground his foot for emphasis. Corneo yelled out.

"Why do you think we went through all the trouble to team up with those guys to get you? One, because we were ready to die. Two, because we were sure of victory. Or three, because we are clueless." He started twisting his foot making Corneo shake his head.

"Two...it's number two!"

"All wrong." He stomped on his foot one last time making the man let go and fall off the mountain just like his pet. Reno flipped his hair back.

"The correct answer was because it's our job."

"Oh thank you so much, I didn't think you would help!" Elena yelled to Reno sighed and looked at the woman.

"Elena, don't act so weak, you're a Turk!" She stopped praising and adopted her business face, which was really red now from being upside down.

"Yes sir." She yelled.

"Never thought you'd come an help us." Barret said to the Turks. Before Reno could answer his phone rang, so he picked it up.

"Yeah it's Reno...yes...yes...we'll get right to it." Reno looked at the group and closed his phone.

"Was that the company?" Elena asked.

"Yeah, they want us to find Cloud and Nathan" He looked at us.

"Wait, when the fuck did I become a big target?" I yelled. Cloud readied his sword.

"Are we on?" Rude asked, having one fist out and crouching a little. Reno shook his head.

"No, today we're off duty." The group relaxed.

"I don't care about that. Get me down!" Cloud sighed.

"Let's get her everyone."

"Actually Cloud, I think I'm going to take a nap. Wake me when Yuffie's down." I closed my eyes. Even though I was on a mountain, I still fell asleep easily. By the time I wake up I'd be happy with my materia and everyone will be happy.


	23. Chapter 23

A/N Hi guys its been a difficult week for me, getting this out was one of the hardest things i could pull but I'm happy I was able to get this chapter out. It finishes off the Wutai arc so I hope its up to par with what I hoped it would have been if i didn't have any distractions.

for the odd line in the fan fic...it was when Corneo was referring to Elena and Yuffie being I quote "A squashed Tomatoes" just think about that and reread that line, you'll see what I meant.

I hope everyone has a good read. Also You know what you guys should listen to? He Mele No Lilo, its that Hawaiian song from the beginning of Lilo and Stitch, I realized how awesome it really is

Shout outs to my beta reader Saria19 as well as botoingness who put a shoutout to my fic, if you want another insert, check out _Chosen_, I can say you'll get a laugh or to.

* * *

><p>Ch 23<p>

"What do you mean you can't give me my materia?"

"I said I couldn't get it to you until later...maybe tomorrow."

"Why not now?"

"...It's getting polished."

"You sent my materia to get polished?"

"Have I steered you wrong yet?"

"Yes, when you led everyone here to steal our materia."

"I gave back the rest so that doesn't count, and if it does you helped convince them to come."

"I accept that, now I want my materia."

"You do have an Elemental."

"The crap one the group found at Mt. Nibel."

"Nathan, stop being impatient and wait." I face palmed, arguing with Yuffie was getting me nowhere. I didn't even get a straight answer when she only stole one of my materia and not all. I was happy she didn't, but it still racked my brain. I turned to the rest of the gang exchanging materia since Yuffie messed up the whole party arrangement, I took the MP absorb just so it would be less complicated for everyone else.

"Can we stay one more day? It was basically mastered." He sighed.

"Fine, but it is coming out of your gil to stay at an inn."

"No need! You can all stay at my father's house. It's got plenty of room." Yuffie added delightedly.

"It is hard to believe she is actually a real princess." Nanaki mused. I had informed everyone about the conversation between her and Godo and it didn't take long for everyone to connect the dots.

"Aren't princesses' quiet and polite and dressed high class and all?" Barret asked. Yuffie sputtered a laugh.

"That's the boring kind, I'm a warrior princess!" The group sweat dropped.

"Well if there isn't anything else to do, I'm going to the bar to collect a few things. Maybe I'll walk around the rest of the village and see what I can buy." I walked out off Yuffie's hideout and collected a few items, namely the HP absorb in the cat house and my prize at the bar. At the Turtles Paradise I looked around and felt relieved the Turks weren't there. I walked up to the counter seeing a smiling bartender.

"Are you looking for some more Sake?"

"No, I have these actually." I reached into my travel pack and rummaged around for all of the ticket stubs. I gave him the wad of papers and he went wide eyed.

"You won the contest? That is amazing; you must travel a lot to have been able to find all six. Congratulations..." He went under his counter, when he came back up several bottles were placed on it. I examined each one finding them having different colors and consistencies.

"Are these Sources?" I asked.

"Yes, natural enhancers. They are very hard to come by but we happened to have all types in stock, the competition was to get business but the mystery prize was always going to be good, I threw in a Mega-elixir just to seal the deal." He explained. I took one bottle labeled with a "P" and uncorked it. I drank the thick liquid and found it didn't taste all that bad. When I was done I belched.

"Nothing's different..."

"It takes time, the world wasn't created in a day, but for you it will take that long for the Power Source to take effect. Why not enjoy some other drinks while you're at it."

"Meh, why not?" I placed a few gil down and the man gave me a cheap drink. Being no stranger to alcohol it was easy to stomach, decent taste too. A little later the bar door opened for me to see Vincent stride in.

"Hey Vince." I waved.

"Hn." He nodded and sat next to me and asked for some water. Looking at him I could still see some sheen from his sweat. We both sat and drank until he started tapping his claw on the counter.

"I'm surprised you're not asking." He mumbled.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The mountain..." He stated. I shook my head and took another sip from my drink.

"Everyone else has been asking?" His silence was answer enough for me. Everyone else was giving him a wide berth since his transformation. Only ones who didn't seem to care were Nanaki and Yuffie.

"It really doesn't matter to me, we have two types of talking cats, an obnoxiously loud ninja, a flower girl that's part of an old race, a foul mouthed pilot, two freedom fighters, and then Cloud has his own category. I'm used to this by now."

"And where do you fit in?" He asked. I shrugged.

"The unlucky guy, every group has one. I was dragged into this instead of volunteering like everyone else." God isn't that the truth.

"Not everyone is as accepting as you."

"Don't worry Vince, everyone will warm up to the cold, emotionless, bastard you believe yourself to be. I know I have." He didn't even spare me a glance. Meh, I don't blame the guy.

"I have been wondering one thing though, why don't you use materia?"

"I don't consider them as reliable as my guns."

"Didn't they issue materia back in your Turk days?"

"Very rarely, Shinra was only beginning to integrate materia into its employee's regime."

"Doesn't explain why you don't use them."

"Call me old fashioned." There's that Turk sense of humor, cracking dry jokes with a straight face, I love it.

"Twenty years in a basement would do that to you." We kept drinking in silence until Cait found us and said the group was to meet at Godo's mansion. We followed him and I found it had gotten later than I thought I was, it was around sun down when we reached the complex. Most of the gang was already inside in one of the many guest rooms.

"I don't like it here." Cid said.

"And why is that Cid?" Aeris asked.

"It's the damn people around here."

"But everyone's been really good to us since Yuffie offered to keep us here."

"Exactly! I've been called an honorable guest too many times today, everyone's all quiet and nice and bullshit. It's like I'm with a whole town of Shera's." Cid shivered when he said that. I just laughed. Just then Yuffie had barged in.

"Alright everyone, let's eat. Follow me." We all got out of the room and into some dining area. Everyone sat down around the low tables with some people coming in with different variety of food. I felt nostalgia as I recognized a few dishes here and there; surprisingly it was a culmination of what I believed was Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and a few others I couldn't quite place. Hey you know maybe Wutai is just the culmination of all of Asia's eastern countries. Thinking about that, how complicated is the language? Oh well, I'll think about it later after eating.

"How the hell do you use these things?" Barret and Cid both yelled at the same time, both trying to eat with chopsticks, and failing miserably. I noticed everyone else had similar trouble with the utensils excluding Yuffie who was laughing at everyone else while taking bits and pieces from the food in front of us. I couldn't help but to join in.

"I'd like to see you try to use this too kid." Cid growled. I picked mine up in between my thumb and index finger and started eating rice which I had already placed into my own bowl. Cid actually looked shocked that I did it so easy.

"Bullshit you cheated!" He yelled.

"How do you cheat at chop sticks? You can't now shut it!" I yelled right back.

"How do you know how to use them then?" asked Aeris.

"Because I've learned to use them before. This isn't the first time I've used them." everyone was surprised to hear that.

"Have you been to Wutai?" Nanaki asked. I shook my head. Well unless you count Japan as a version of Wutai then yes, yes I have.

"Just because I've never been here doesn't mean I shouldn't know about the culture." The explanation was good enough for the group and everyone kept eating and conversing. The whole team was at ease, there wasn't any danger to look out for, no hurry to get anywhere.

A true moment of peace. It's times like these I truly enjoy traveling with everyone.

"Are there people in my home who are having fun and I am not?" One of the doors slid open and Godo came in. Everyone quieted down. Yuffie was glaring at him.

"Now don't stop on my account, please enjoy!" He picked up a cup of Sake and drank. The group went back to talking although not as lively and Yuffie just sat in place.

"I see they caught you, not the ninja you thought you were huh?" He said. Yuffie's fist tightened.

"They rescued me, I'm repaying them." The man laughed.

"I'm sorry my daughter put you through so much trouble, she has her head in the clouds you see, always dreaming of restoring Wutai's honor."

"Because cowards like you don't make the effort to!" Godo ignored her outburst.

"She always did dream big and disrespect her elders, why when she was nine she ran away from her own home, right after the war."

"Because you willingly made our village into a resort town!"

"It wasn't in my power to oppose Shinra, I made the right decision." Yuffie slammed her fist onto the table

"You disgraced what Wutai once stood for. I at least try to bring it back."

"And here you are the weak little ninja who can't scam anyone."

"These are my friends, and I am not weak!"

"Right when you completed your training you left, you didn't gain any discipline or skill while you were gone."

"I did to! I can prove it!"

"How? What could you possibly do that could prove you're a good ninja, or even have the ability to restore Wutai?" Yuffie looked down, thinking. After a minute she pulled her head back up with a determined look in her eye.

"I'll take on the five Gods of Wutai!" Godo's eyes widened at the challenge.

"You think you can easily take the best warriors of the village? You don't even know who they are, how much power they have..."

"I don't care, I'll show you and the rest of those guys what I'm made of. Tomorrow I will battle through the Pagoda!" Everyone in the room was dumbstruck at Yuffie's declaration. I tried to hide a smile. Godo shook his head.

"If you truly wish to make a fool of yourself then I can't stop you. Good night and good luck, everyone knows you're going to need it." He got up and left.

"Troublesome." Vincent spoke first.

"I agree." Cid said.

"Yuffie what are you doing?" Asked Cloud.

"I'm proving that this village has become weak because of my father's decision."

"You're just delaying us from perusing Sephiroth." Cloud said coldly.

"Cloud just let me do this so I can show my dad why he's wrong! Please please! I have to!"

"Fine, now be quiet." She smiled.

"Great so I can use everyone's materia for help right?"

"Like hell you're getting your hands on all of the materia again!" Barret added.

"I have to agree Yuffie. You're already on thin ice." Cloud said.

"Come on guys, I just need maybe three...four...eight at the most."

"The answer is no. Now everyone get some rest. When Yuffie is done tomorrow we leave." The rest of the group got up and mumbled their good-nights. Yuffie was sitting staring at the ground and I was still eating.

"You really want to prove yourself huh?"

"I had to train myself to be a ninja you know," I looked at her sad visage. "Being the princess I wasn't supposed to learn all of these dangerous skills, my dad always frowned at me when I would talk about using them to bring Wutai back."

"You stole our materia so that you could show how powerful Wutai could be." She nodded.

"Maybe I was being stupid, the Five Gods are supposed to be the most powerful ninja since before the war. I should call it off."

"Now why do that?" She looked at me. "I think you could take all of them on, you dream big Yuffie, I like that. Its better you try to achieve that dream instead of ignoring it. Beating these guys at the Pagoda will be a big step for you, and I believe you can take it."

"You mean..."

"I'm more than willing to help you." She jumped up and squealed in delight.

"Don't get cocky; we have a lot of planning to do. You're going to face five very powerful people. You'll need to be adequately prepared. I'll only help if you do exactly as I tell you when I tell to." She shook her head excitedly before deflating.

"But, all I'll have is your materia. How can I win with only those?" I smiled.

"Well I guess we'll have to borrow a few while everyone else is asleep." I saw the wicked grin on Yuffie.

(The next day.)

It was the break of dawn, everyone else in the group was still sleeping. I was tired as all hell again but I could take a nap on the Tiny Bronco, I had changed from my old clothes into some new ones that I got from staying at Godo's house. I was wearing a loose white karate Gi and some of what I like to call my new favorite pair of Bruce Lee pants, the one thing I didn't like was I had to go bare foot since my shoes were worn out from all the battles now. Yuffie and I were standing in front of the Pagoda looking at the tall tower in all of its glory.

"You sure I can do this" She asked me.

"The way I set you up, I can guarantee you will win. But if not, we can always switch a few materia out." I held the bag that contained all of the borrowed materia. But I made sure Yuffie was already prepared since I knew the bosses beforehand. I had given her Choco/mog with the extra Elemental on her new weapon, the Razor Ring. Along with Restore, Enemy Skill, and Barrier materia. Since she took my Elemental I had to compensate her armlet with Nanaki's leveled up Poison as well as Sense and Time.

"Come on, we have a tower to tumble." We both walked in and found the first room with a man who looked about his mid thirty's wearing a green Gi.

"Oh Miss Yuffie. Will you be climbing the Pagoda today?" She nodded. "Then I, Sacred Gorky will be your opponent on the first floor." Suddenly footsteps were running down the stairs when a kid no older than twelve came in.

"Yo call me Shake! I'll be watchin you fight Gorky." Yuffie and the man got on opposite sides of the room.

"Ready...Begin!"

"Power charge!" Gorky yelled an immediately a puff of smoke engulfed him when out came a demon flapping its wings, dissipating the smoke. Yuffie looked worried.

"That's a really good technique."

"Stay on your toes Yuffie, remember what I said?" She nodded and started using Sense. The boss cast protect on itself when Yuffie struck. Her Enemy Skill flashed and a large hammer appeared in front of her. Though it looked heavy she easily lifted it and hit Gorky, however he didn't seem fazed by the attack.

"Nathan that attack didn't do anything!" She yelled, dodging a swipe from the boss.

"Yuffie, trust me and use the attack again."

"If I lose because of you I'm taking it out on you as well!" She pulled out the magic hammer again and hit Gorky only to be countered with a punch from the flying monster man.

"Now what?"

"What is it weak against?"

"Wind."

"Then attack, you have Choco/mog!" Yuffie threw her bladed ring at Gorky when it tried to use its wings to knock it off course, but having a wind element it hit true and cut the monster deeply. The monster knelt down looking it was about to cast a spell when it stopped, confused. Yuffie was as well until she realized why I had her use magic hammer. She picked her weapon back up and attacked again. The final blow made the monster disappear in another cloud of smoke, now leaving the real Gorky who looked winded.

"I thought you were just some wild girl, but you handled that well. I must see how you do on the next fight." Yuffie smiled and waved me over, the both of us went up the stair case.

"Alright who's next?" Yuffie yelled.

"Are you blind? I'm right here!" Shake said.

"What, I have to fight a punk?" Yuffie said. Shake was really red in the face.

"Some punk? I'm more of an adult than some bimbo girl!" I held in my laughter.

"What did you say!" Yuffie yelled.

"See! It's that kind of anger that makes you immature! Don't pat yourself on the back until you beat me!"

"Come on you snot nosed brat! I'll take you!"

"Someone got past Gorky?" A third voice asked. From the stairs came a woman in her twenty's with a bun tied in her hair.

"I, Chekhov, will have to stand in." Yuffie ignored the woman, looking at the little girl in front of her.

"Here I come brat! Speed Charge!" Just as with Gorky, she changed, but instead came out a colorful penguin. Yuffie burst out laughing at the sight. I shook my head.

"Yuffie, take this seriously." I said. She wiped a tear from her eye and got in a ready position. The penguin flew up into the air and started shooting energy bombs at her, she barely dodged when I yelled out to her.

"Yuffie, use L4 Suicide." She looked at me confused when the penguin attack again and she dodged. She tapped into her enemy skill and a spark appeared under the penguin, it exploded only to show a now very weak little girl.

"No fair! You cheated!" The little girl was having a tantrum.

"Exploiting an enemy's weakness is hardly cheating." I said.

"Thanks Nathan, how did you know that would work?"

"Experience." I had discovered something odd about the spell. Since experience was not a numerical based number here, L4 Suicide was a questionable spell when people used it, so I guess it was known as a powerful spell that only worked a small percent of the time. Being the only person in the entire world who knew boss levels I was technically the only person who knew how to use it.

"But the fight wasn't a challenge, I couldn't show my skills!" I sighed.

"Yuffie just because you didn't fight all out doesn't mean you're weaker than you think you are, I'm helping you conserve your energy for the final fight, the only way to do that is to help you in the others so it doesn't take a toll on you." Plus if we don't finish this boss rush with a few hours I'm going to have my ass chewed out for letting Yuffie take the materia.

"Aw Nathan you're so nice to me." She patted my shoulder.

"Do you want me to leave right now, cuz I will." She removed her hand and we went up the stairs. Yuffie stood on the opposite side of the woman when a man came down wearing some odd hat.

"So even Shake was defeated. It's been a while since you had to fight Chekhov." The woman smiled.

"Yes, but this is as far as this goes."

"That isn't going to happen. I'll teach you the strength of youth!"

"Fine then, Magic Change!" Another poof and the woman was an alien looking monster.

"Remember the strategy Yuffie." She nodded, the monster attacked Yuffie when she pulled out Magic hammer and hit the third pagoda boss. Its eyes then flashed when Yuffie was about to attack again, she stood completely still while Chekhov attacked Yuffie and drained her strength.

"I knew I should have given her the gem ring. Just hang in there." I mumbled. The paralysis soon wore off and Yuffie was back in action with another hammer attack. It hit and the monster actually fell and dissipated which really threw me off. The woman stood up.

"I concede, I have no more magic to cast, you are the victor." She said through clenched teeth. Well at least competence translates in this world. Yuffie and I went up the next set of stairs.

"Nathan this is so easy...how do you know how to beat these guys if you've never been to Wutai?"

"I simply prepared you for all possibilities, and gave you basic strategies to work off of so you could fight at your best in the end." Man that made me sound like a boss; I have to exploit my knowledge more. We reached the next room seeing Staniv smile at us.

"You see the rules are the best fighter on each floor is your opponent, although it is a five story pagoda, the fourth floor is the highest. After all, no one has beaten me, the master of weaponry! Weapon change!" This time the transformation was one of those headless boulder swinging monsters. He charged right at Yuffie who barely dodged before focusing on a spell before I interrupted.

"Use suicide again Yuffie." She didn't question me and cast the spell which did a huge number on the man. It was very sluggish when it attacked and was easily avoided by the still healthy Yuffie. Yuffie won the fourth battle, completely in glee we had advanced so quickly.

The other four pagoda bosses walked in, each praising Yuffie for her increase in skill and power. The fourth simply said we would have to face "him" All of them went up. I switched out Yuffie's materia so she would have my lightning in her armor, taking back Choco/mog and made her wear the star pendent. Everything else I really couldn't change around. We went up the final set of stairs hearing a very loud, but familiar voice.

"I truly underestimated you Yuffie, it seems you have grown."

"Dad? What are you-" He held up his hand to stop her.

"I am the leader of the village; you think I would be weak? Come Yuffie, let me see how good you claim you really are!" Yuffie was very nervous when she looked at me.

"Please tell me everything will work out like you said." I shook my head and smiled.

"Sorry Yuffie but I could only help you till we got here; it's up to your skills to fight Godo now, good luck." The color drained from her face but she stepped forward anyway. Godo smiled.

"Let's fight, OMNI change!" He disappeared as well, a large figure coming out of the smoke. A four armed three faced moving statue readied itself in front of Yuffie. She got into position, her Razor wheel at the ready.

Godo attacked first, casting Trine quicker than the Materia Keeper and ensnaring Yuffie, the Elemental just barely negating some of the damage. She jumped back and healed herself when Godo attacked with his sword, Yuffie blocked and tried to strike back only to have her weapon swatted away and to get a punch knocking her across the room. I cringed at how bad that must have hurt, but Yuffie got back up.

"Come on Yuffie...just remember the basics." I mumbled. Yuffie got a lucky hit in and was able to poison Godo when he tried to strike again, the statue monster coughed but laughed.

"Poison? Using tricks to take down your opponent. Impressive, but not enough daughter!" Godo attacked again and Yuffie twisted so the sword would glance off her shuriken, leaving him open for her ti strike, she had magic hammer out in less than a minute and smashed Godo's back before jumping back.

"What a useless attack, I barely felt it!" Godo's face changed to the porcelain white one, it had a dark orb in its hand and he threw it at Yuffie. She dodged but the level two Demi spell cover a very large area, enough to catch her legs and make her scream from the crushing and pulling sensation of warped gravity.

"You fought well enough against me Yuffie, but it is over." He pulled out his sword and tried to attack Yuffie only for her to spin out the way and use magic hammer again. Right after she cast a bolt to keep Godo away.

"Why do you insist on using that attack? It's useless against me." Yuffie ignored him and healed her legs before getting into her stance again.

"That attack has helped me before, and I will use it again if I have to." She said. Godo just charged at Yuffie while casting a Bio spell which splashed across the field, her being protected by the Star Pendant and making one last Magic hammer hit Godo across the head.

"It seems I will have to show you why you should take me seriously." He tried to cast Demi again when the spell disappeared before him, his eyes widened when Yuffie smiled.

"Not so useless now, huh." She was breathing heavily, the constant magic casting taking a toll on her. But she kept it up by casting Haste and Barrier before readying herself.

"I'll show you who's skilled." She went up and slashed Godo, then somehow appeared to his right and slashed again, then the left, then above him. Somehow Yuffie was fast enough to appear and disappear around the man and attack. The final blow knocked him onto his back, his transformation wearing off. Yuffie fell too, exhausted from the fight. The rest of the Five Gods staring in awe that their leader was beaten.

"Not...bad...old coot." Yuffie managed to breathe out.

"You...really improved..." He started laughing, then Yuffie joined in, both trying to laugh and catch their breaths. Both got up, Yuffie having that mischievous smile of her's, and Godo with a proud look on his face.

"It is time I gave you this Yuffie." Godo went up to her and handed her a red materia, a serpent swirling around inside.

"That is Leviathan's materia, take it." He placed it into her hand.

"But Lord Godo, Leviathan should only be given to the one who conquers and takes over the pagoda, it is custom..."

"Customs, customs, customs! They are so stupid." Yuffie voiced. The pagoda bosses didn't seem pleased.

"What about the rest of you? You all have power, are you satisfied being cooped up in this tower?"

"Yuffie!" He father scolded, but she continued.

"You to dad! Just because you lost the war! You turned Wutai into this; you turned it into a resort town peddling for tourists! How dare you! Leviathan and Da-chao would be ashamed!" The whole room was silent at her outburst. Godo adopted a thoughtful look.

"She is a kid!" Shake blurted out Yuffie almost charged the kid before Godo stopped her.

"Forgive me Yuffie, it is my fault..." He admitted, the other four bosses were shocked.

"Lord Godo! What are you saying?"

"Losing the war...turning Wutai into this...it is my fault."

"Lord Godo!" Chekhov shouted.

"SILENCE!" The entire room was shaken hearing Godo sound angry. But he put his head down.

"Yuffie...I am the same now as I was when I wanted the war...but after I lost, I got to thinking. Is strength only for defeating the enemy? Or just something to show off?" He sounded troubled, he was baring his feelings in front of his daughter, and it was like he had to find the right words.

"Might begets might. That's the same way as Shinra." Everyone contemplated his words. He looked back up.

"I knew you were looking for materia for the good of Wutai, but the reason I hide my strength is also for the good of Wutai...but now, I realize both are necessary. Strength without determination means nothing. Determination without strength is also useless."

"Lord Godo?" One of the four asked. Godo turned with a resolute face.

"You there!" He pointed at me. "Please take Yuffie with you! You and your team have both strength and determination!"

"It'll be my pleasure." Godo smiled.

"Go Yuffie, for the sake of strengthening Wutai!" Yuffie smiled and nodded at her father's order. Everyone started to leave besides them, I saw Godo catch Yuffie out of the corner of my eye and I laughed at how he would want her to bring back the team's materia in the end. I was down to the third floor before Yuffie caught back up.

"Nathan he wants to talk to you."

"Who?"

"My dad duh!"

"Wait what? Why?

"Beats me, just hurry back so we don't get in trouble." She ran ahead. I went back up the stairs to see Godo waiting in the fifth room.

"I must thank you. If you didn't help my daughter this may never have happened."

"I really didn't do anything."

"You helped her exploit every weakness of the Five Gods, you encouraged her to use underhanded moves and strategy. You fight like a ninja, I respect that." He came closer to me.

"I also know you are the only one of your team to help her for this fight, She could have taken all of the gods one after the other, but you made it so she would have more than enough strength to face me." He patted me on the back.

"I expect you to take care of her; she will need someone just as crazy, but more level headed to keep an eye out for her out there. Once again, thank you." He bowed so I did as well. I went back down the stairs thinking about how Godo praised me. It was nice, kind of cool too. Maybe I should take a more active role in the story.

I came out the front door seeing Yuffie with her hands behind her back.

"I hope that's my Elemental you have there." I joked.

"Even better, it came out just like I asked the smith, I hope you like them." Them?

She held out her hands, in each one wasn't my materia. Instead it was a pair of armored gloves. They were blue with a red tint, there was a small shimmering in the cloth that told me they were made from my materia, but they also had a red plated samurai gauntlets attached to them, both having four inter-connected materia slots. I dropped the bag of materia seeing them.

"How.."

"We have weapon smiths here in Wutai too, I only knew of one that was able to make materia armor and weapons. I gave him your Elemental and asked him to make those gloves you described one time on the buggy." I damn near fell to my knees, they were a spitting image of what I was thinking of.

"That's why you only stole the Elemental?"

"Yep!" She smiled.

"But...why?" I couldn't think straight, she stole everyone's materia except mine which was made into a gift? That didn't fit Yuffie's profile.

"Even though you're the one who beat me up when we first met, you did try to keep your word and watch out for me. You let me be your friend Nathan, and I let you be my best friend...you and the rest of the group are all my friends now, and I want to make it up to you all!" That's...considerate...and admirable...and selfless...

Where did I get stuck into now?

"Here, take them. The smith said that it's a master piece." I took them from her.

"These must have cost a fortune." I managed to say.

"Being the daughter of the village leader has its perks. Didn't cost me a single gil, but I will take the materia it spawned as payment." I looked and she had another Elemental.

"But.."

"It was almost mastered; it didn't take long for me to get it the rest of the way up. This came out from the mastered materia." I was dumbstruck. She laughed.

"You can thank me later, let's get these back to the group before their up, we still have time." She took the back of materia and ran off, leaving me in the dust. I stared at the gauntlets for some time, I don't know how long. I came to my senses and put the gauntlets on, the slipped up to my elbow and tied easy. I felt the materias power serge a little when it was on completely.

But Yuffie did something so generous, and calling me her best friend...did I really do that much for her compared to the rest of the team?

_I expect you to take care of her; she will need someone just as crazy, but more level headed to keep an eye out for her out there._

I felt heat go to my face remembering what Godo said, and looking at Yuffie's gift. He couldn't have possibly meant anything by that...could he? No No, I just helped her a little, it was no big deal...was it?

I shook my head. I must be going insane. Yuffie was really nice once you get to know her but...I don't know maybe there was...no couldn't be...crap...

I slapped my head with my armored hand. Realizing what i was thinking

I might like a video game character...what the hell is going on with me...

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><p>See you during the weekend...no...see you soon space cowboy...I always wanted to say that to someone.<p> 


	24. Chapter 24

A/N. Alright guys here is the second chapter of the week. But do you all know what time it is? Nope because I've only done this once before. Its shoutout time here in ch 24 of stranger from the sky and i feel all giddy thinking about it.

Alright first goes to my beta reader Saria19 who has been doing an awesome job at trying to keep my grammar in check, and i have been unfair with her by uploading my chaps at irregular times so i will improve on that.

I'd like to shout out to Wingsong5555 and little101 who have been here since the day i uploaded this fic, good dedication guys.

next is Unita who made me think about adding more regular social interactions in the story as well as invest in an idea i had thought of earlier but scratched, now i will implement it over time. All cuz you dood.

Botoingness who said I helped inspire to create his own FFVII insert, _Chosen_

Then there is the person who got me to feel like shouting out. Thank you Aerisu-tan for critiquing the last chapter and for bloating up my ego about how the story impressed you...not really but it still feels awesome to get as detailed an opinion such as her's and or his considering the isu part kind of messes me up. One thing I read from Aerisu-tan was something I go through a lot hear on , a good story is made but at some point the person stopped in the middle and never finished.

So i promise for great justice to see this story till the end audience! but now...

Ch 24

**ATE**

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><p>Rufus could have had better days. After the appearance of AVALANCHE he was extremely annoyed they potentially could find Sephiroth before they could, however thanks to Reeve's confirmation later, the entire group had to use the plane as a boat. What annoyed him was that they had increased in numbers again, now having Shinra's former best pilot and a Turk. He would have to investigate the identity of said Turk later. They also traveled to Wutai and were currently off somewhere around the continent's coast. A recent storm made it hard for Cait Sith to relay the location of the group. Now they hardly knew where either AVALANCHE or Sephiroth were, and it was getting on the president's nerves.<p>

"Mr. President, someone has come to see you." His secretary messaged him.

"Send them in." Perhaps someone brought good news. He waited for the person to walk up the stairs for a good ten minutes, he was about to ask his secretary why it was taking so long until he saw the person in question.

"Rufus...it's been a while hasn't it?" The round glasses, lab coat, and that voice that sent chills down even Sephiroth's spine was a dead giveaway.

"Hojo, I'm surprised you're here." He didn't let his tone show it. "When you gave us your resignation I thought you weren't willing to work for us anymore."

"That is the truth; however I did hear interesting bits of information about Sephiroth." The scientists had a crooked smile.

"And that would be...?

"His next destination." Rufus kept his face neutral but was very cautious about the situation.

"How is it you came by this information?"

"I may have stopped working for Shinra for a time, that doesn't mean that I don't have my own network Rufus." So Hojo had been tracking Sephiroth as well...the question was how. Possibly a few employees were withholding information and relaying it to the doctor.

"Don't try to figure it out, you won't find any of my sources." Hojo said it as if it was a throw away fact.

"Then do tell us where he is going."

"Now young president, you know I can't just give you the information." Rufus cursed. Hojo was right; even if he ordered someone to take it from the scientist, he was still considered an asset to the company even though he wasn't affiliated anymore.

"What do you want?"

"To work as head of Science again." That threw Rufus off.

"If you wish to come back then why did you resign?"

"Recently I have found out some...interesting things about the group, I have one more demand."

"That is?"

"When you catch the group, I want to experiment on their leader, as well as the Turk, and the anomaly." So Hojo came back for tests, not surprising. But he knew who was specifically in the group, another tidbit from his sources then.

"Of course, you want Cloud, Vincent, and the Ancient. I can do that."

"I have no further use for the Ancient." Again Rufus was thrown off. "I have found...a different subject for my tests."

"Then who is the anomaly?"

"The boy, the one with exceptional materia manipulation skills. I want to run experiments on him." Hojo still had interest after all this time in River?

"Why do you call him the anomaly?" Another crooked smile.

"Let's just say that I have... very special experiments prepared for him." The implications made Rufus shiver.

"Then I accept. It is good to have you back professor." The doctor nodded. Rufus may not like it, but now they knew where Sephiroth would go, he would need to send Tseng in to investigate. Rufus felt unnerved though, Hojo seemed...different. He had lost some hair and had small green spots on his head; they were even swollen a little. He shook his head, if he thought about it; it would only make him sick. He always knew Hojo was crazy, but to start experimenting on himself was borderline psychotic. Now all they needed to do was find out where the group was.

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><p>"Stay near the shallow waters kid, you're veering off, go left."<p>

"I know what I'm doing Cid." Currently I was driving the Tiny Bronco near the coast, following the vague directions from Cid we had to go south to find Sephiroth; it was kind of my punishment for Wutai. I went inside the mountains so I could get Cid's dragon lance, only to run into a very awake Cloud and group. I took full blame for taking the material, causing me to have to carry everyone's items, but also pilot the Bronco to our destination. Since we didn't have a set fix, that meant that I was to drive until we found something.

"Okay going through the rivers a good idea; just make sure we don't crash. Keep on the left coast side, the water is slower."

"Will do Cid." I was wearing my new gauntlets, considering how cool they looked I dubbed them the Genji Gloves of FF7. On my left I had equipped my lightning, gravity, and MP absorb while on my right I kept my fire, HP absorb, and Shiva. On the way to the Bronco I tested them out, I could only use magic materia to add elements to the gloves, and the magic didn't spread across the rest of my body so I didn't have to worry about burning or shocking myself.

"You're going right, stick to the shallow waters on the left. It's been raining all day, I don't want the Bronco to sink or hit the beaches."

"I'll keep that in mind Cid." Then there was Yuffie...I still don't know what I'm thinking. She's loud, cocky, conniving, hell she needs the team to help her. Yet seeing her be generous...She can be a really nice person when she wanted to. Deep down she really does care for the whole group, she admitted I was her best friend too.

"You're veering off again! I said keep left!" Cid yelled.

"I'm close enough to the shore!" I yelled back.

"No you aren't, we can be taken by the current, go back left!" He was getting red in the face.

"Left, and left, and left, and left, and left again, and I'm right up your ass Cid, I know how to drive this thing!"

"I'm the pilot here; you can't work the Tiny Bronco like I can." Cid tried to grab the...what do they call the steering wheel on a plane...a york? Yoke… yeah that's it, he tried to grab the yoke.

"Yes you're a pilot, you fly shit, we are driving on the water. I drive; I'm more qualified than you!"

"Both of you idiots shut up, it's bad enough we got caught in a storm, we don't need you two arguing!" Barret scolded.

"Let me fly it, I know what 'm doing!"

"We're driving so I know what I'm doing!"

"You want to fight punk ass?"

"Come at me bro!"

"I told you two to be quiet!"

"Enough!" Cid, Barret, and I were hit upside the heads by something metal, rubbing it, I looked at a very damp Tifa taking her gloves off.

"It's bad enough when two of you argue, we don't need all three of you going at it, Cid can drive Nathan. Now no more arguing, am I making myself clear?"

"Yes Tifa/mom" Me being the variant of the three received yet another pound from Tifa's fist. Rubbing my head I turned to check on Cloud who was trying to keep dry under a wing.

"Hey leader, where the hell do we go?" I think I got us close enough to the collector we don't have to worry about directions.

"I don't know, I barely know where we are."

"Should we ask for directions?"

"From where?"

"I don't know, anywhere! We need to get out this rain, I mean Cloud seriously, look at poor Nanaki." He looked over at the other side of the plane seeing a thoroughly soaked Nanaki next to a very annoyed Vincent whose hair was drenched. I'd be laughing hard if I wasn't trying to prove a point.

"Fine, look out for lights in the distance. Everyone's getting cold and wet." I nodded and relayed the order to Cid. God I wish I kept my crap shoes; the metal is giving me frost bite I swear. I look towards the back of the plane and I suddenly don't feel so bad. Yuffie and Tifa were the two with the least amount of clothing out of the entire group. They were both shivering even though we had a few security blankets to give them. I think the only two people on here that are okay with this are Aeris and Cait Sith. Aeris apparently likes the rain and Cait looked water proof so he just sat around.

"I...I hate...ra...rain" Yuffie sputtered out. Tifa didn't voice her opinion but nodded in agreement.

"Hey guys, I see lights up ahead!" Cid yelled. In the distance we all saw a single house on some land.

"Get the plane as close as possible and then everyone get off." Cloud ordered. We landed on a beach and started traversing towards the house. Up close it was two stories and painted blue. Instead of knocking Cloud burst right in along with the rest of the group who were trying to get out the cold. A man looked at the whole group with a smile on his face.

"More customers! You sure picked an odd time and place...oh but if you are looking for the Keystone you're too late, don't have it." Everyone was confused.

"Keystone" Asked Cloud.

"Oh you didn't come here for it?"

"What does it do exactly?" Asked Cait.

"The Keystone is a key that unlocks the gate to a very old temple somewhere. You're not going to believe it, but I heard it was the Temple of the Ancients!" He announced excitedly, everyone in the group was shocked that such a place existed. Aeris couldn't contain her interest.

"The Ancients had a temple? I never knew." But the collector shop owner laughed.

"Don't take it seriously, it's just a legend. Now is there anything else I can interest you all in?"

"Who did you sell it to?" Cloud persisted.

"The guy I sold it to gave off a feeling it would be not be a good idea to sell it to him"

"Who did you sell it to?"

"The manager of the Gold Saucer... think his name was Dio. Said he was going to put it in a museum and he took off out of here." Everyone groaned sans Vincent and Cid when they heard the name.

"So we have to go back to get the key?" Asked Cait.

"Where is the temple?" Asked Aeris.

"Come on... it's only a legend. But if it were true, that sure would be something, huh? Now that you mention it, I have heard of something called Ultimate Destruction Magic...was supposed to be hidden somewhere in the Temple of the Ancients." Everyone paled now.

"We're going now." Cloud ordered.

"But its still raining!" Yuffie whined.

"You want to wait after what you just heard?" Okay Cloud has a good point I can't side with Yuffie on this one.

"As much as the walk will suck guys Clouds right, Sephiroth is after that magic." I rationalized, Vincent looked at me.

"How are you so sure?" He questioned. Nanaki answered instead.

"Sephiroth has been toying with us, he knows he is more powerful even with all of our teamwork. But we have a chance, unless he gets this power."

"Red is right. Everyone try to stay warm, if we hurry we can make it to the Gold Saucer by afternoon." Cloud announced. Everyone had gathered their gear and said by to the weapons collector. I would have to remember to get some Mythril to trade him for Aeris ultimate limit. But right now everyone is basically sprinting towards Gold Saucer to get the key. Cloud is the fastest out of us with his enhancements while me being the most normal out of everyone was the slowest and at the back of the pack, but having been journeying and fighting monsters and such I have been getting more than enough exercise that I had back on earth I kept up. In the end we did make it to the Corel by afternoon but everyone was winded, even Cloud showed signs of fatigue. We were all on the tram ride up to the amusement park.

"So where do you think Dio has the Keystone?" Aeris asked Cloud. "I don't know, but we'll spread out so we have a chance at getting it before Sephiroth." Everyone nodded.

"Ain't this place expensive? How the hell are we all going to get in?" Cid asked. "Don't worry Cid, we'll only have to pay 100 gil for everyone to get in." I chimed.

"How in the hell Nate are we getting in for only 100 gil?" Barret asked. I had and evil smile on my face before reaching into my backpack and pulled out everyone's lifetime passes.

"The 100 gil is because you lost the bet Barret, we have to come back to the park and it was completely relevant. Gimme gimme." I held out my hand. Barret was shocked before he handed over my money and I handed everyone their cards. Even Vincent and Cid.

"How is it you have extras?" Vincent asked.

"Just in case we lost one or two or if we got more people." I explained.

"Do you have anymore?" He inquired. Kind of an odd question though, I know we won't have anymore people in the group.

"No, why do you ask?" He just grunted and looked away. Well I guess it doesn't matter. The tram stopped and we arrived and went right inside while flashing our cards to the attendant. I kind of felt like a VIP just walking in like that.

"Alright, I'll head off to Battle Square, Tifa and Vincent will go to Speed, Nathan and Red will go to Wonder, Yuffie and Barret to Event, Cait and Aeris will check Round Square, finally Cid will check Chocobo Square. Meet back here in twenty minutes if you don't find it, If you do, call everyone else, Go." We all went our separate ways.

"Are we in the right area?" Nanaki asked after we had split from the group.

"No, Cloud will find it in his Square, but he will have to fight eight battles for it. Even though it will be completely useless."

"Why?" We stopped in the middle of the arcade. "It will be taken by Shinra." His reaction was what I expected.

"Why would you let that happen, how!" Surprise...ha ha.

"Cait Sith is the Shinra spy, he's controlled by Reeve, one of their executives. Tonight he'll take it and Shinra will go ahead to the temple." Nanaki bared his teeth a little.

"Why wouldn't you stop that?"

"Even if it didn't alter the game that much, I believe it's necessary so that I can help prevent what happens."

"You mean the death of one of our comrades." He calmed down. I was thinking more along the lines of we need to find out Cait is a spy so we can truly befriend Reeve.

"Why haven't you told me who it is?" I scratched his head.

"If I tell you, then you would interfere. I can only guarantee things if I do, since I have the most likely situations already in my head." I knew where Aeris would be after she leaves, when everyone would find her, and right when Sephiroth attacks. I would have a small window to stop him, but as long as I kept up my magic skills it was possible.

"Is that all you'd prevent?" I shook my head.

"I thought about taking a more active role, so I am going to try to prevent Sephiroth from getting the destructive magic." His eyes widened.

"What does the magic do exactly, and how will you stop him?"

"First, it's called Meteor, it is a spell powerful enough to cause damage to the Planet. Sephiroth's plan is to use it to inflict a wound in it so big he can just fuse right with it becoming god." Nanaki was speechless, but I continued.

"Second, Sephiroth will use his influence over Cloud to make him give him the materia so he can cast it, by that time I want to take it and make sure he can't use it. Possibly destroy the materia if I can think of a way." Nanaki pondered the idea for a few minutes before talking again.

"It's a long shot Nathan, I will say that now...but I have faith in your knowledge. Just be careful. You may have power now but that doesn't mean it will be useful." I agreed. Just because I knew what would happen didn't mean I knew exactly how to stop it. Much like Sector Seven...

Beepbeepbeep...Beepbeepbeep

"Hello?" I picked up my phone.

"It's Aeris, Cloud found the Keystone."

"But?" I knew what she was going to say before she sighed.

"But he has to fight in the arena if he wants it. Dio invited everyone to watch so get here." I closed my phone.

"Well, we have a match to watch my friend. Let's go." Nanaki and me met everyone else in Battle Square and were placed in the front row seats right next to Dio. There were quite a few people who attended the event as well, so Cloud had a huge audience either rooting for him or betting against.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Today's fight is a very special event. Cloud Strife will be fighting eight consecutive battles for your enjoyment! Now who wants to see some muscle, skill, and stamina tested in the arena!" The crowd cheered while everyone in the group seemed uncomfortable, I was excited to see Cloud try his best in the battles.

And even though we got in for free, I can say I defiantly got my money's worth.

The first round went easy enough, just one small monster. But the handicap roulette machine said level down by five. Which translated in this world as having to wear weighted clothes and add extra weight to his weapon. His second match had three monsters against him which he disposed of still looking okay from the fights; his next handicap was his yellow materia broke. The battles went on in the same fashion with Cloud showing more and more difficulty in beating the monsters. The crowd would scream for blood, hell even I was up yelling for Cloud to get his ass in gear so he could win and get out. In the end he was bloodied, but still standing. When Dio called Cloud's win, he just walked out. Everyone followed and saw Dio give him the Keystone. We all congratulated him and went out of the park towards the tram...however...

"What do you mean it's broke?" Barret yelled at the poor girl.

"I'm so sorry, but you can't leave until it's fixed." Barret groaned and Cloud did as well since he went through the whole battle hassle.

"What happened?" Cait came jumping in.

"The tram's out, now we can't get out of this flashy playground." Grumbled Cid. Cait just smiled.

"Too bad, but it happens...I know let's stay at the hotel! They know me here so I can book a few rooms." Before anyone could protest he went off to make reservations.

"Your friend has the right idea; I will notify you when the repairs are done." We all went to the Ghost Hotel with Cait telling us it would be a minute since we came on short notice. Basically everyone was just standing around in the lobby.

"We don't usually get a chance to be together like this. Huh?" Cait asked. Which was really dumb we kind of all are like this at the campfires when we eat, we just don't always talk. Since Vincent and Cid were new editions we recapped our adventure thus far. When everyone made the connection about the numbers, including Nanaki, I gave him a nod telling him I would inform him later. Eventually everyone went to their own respective rooms. I was sitting at the edge of my bed thinking about what to do for the night. I couldn't stop Cait, it would be unnecessary and maybe even costly, we find out he is a spy anyway so tailing him would be out. In actuality I really couldn't do anything about tonight. I know I won't be able to sleep with all of this going on...what the hell am I going to do?

Going around the park would be fun...but it's never cool when you're by yourself...I should bring someone along. Immediately Yuffie popped into my head and I groaned. Now was not the time to think about her, I like her...yeah I'll admit it, I like who she is, the way she acts, especially when she's nice. Maybe I could do something with her? See if she'll like me. I know she's definitely not going on the date with Cloud, so maybe I could take her out for a good time, that sounds fun.

I got off of bed and out of my room, walking towards hers. I stood in front of it for a minute before knocking.

"What do you want?" She mumbled. Maybe this was a bad idea.

"It's Nate." I responded automatically. Now I can't turn back. She opened the door and I kept the worry off my face by keeping my eyes closed and smiling.

"What is it?" I felt a little sweat go down my neck.

"Nothing...I was just wondering...if you...wanted to...go tonight...you know for fun...and stuff." I am not cut out for this. I wish I had more dating experience.

"Like a date?" She raised her eyebrow.

"No, no no no. You know, just two friends having a good time. Keep you company and all." I quickly added. God this is getting awkward. She looked like she was thinking before leaving her weapon in her room and walking out.

"Okay, where to then?"...She's coming? Yes that's awesome, that's a good first step...now what would be good to do?

"I hear there is a play going on in Event Square, wanna see it?"

"Sure, let's go." We walked out the hotel and started towards Event Square. I was a little nervous when the man in the main junction area said it was enchantment night and Yuffie gave me a face saying "not a date, huh?" before laughing at my reaction and pulling me into the slide. When we got to the stadium we sat ourselves up front waiting for the curtains to open.

"What's it about?" Yuffie whispered.

"Classic hero fights villain to save princess story." I whispered back, Yuffie had that grin on her face again.

"Really pulling all the romantic stuff, huh?" I could not look in her direction when she said that, only making her laugh at what she said. This was getting more awkward as the thing progressed; Cloud didn't have to deal with this. The audience hushed at the lights darkened and the stage lit up. The narrator's voice pulling both Yuffie's and my attention.

"Long, long ago, an evil shadow appeared over the peaceful kingdom of Galdia...Princess Rosa was kidnapped by the Evil Dragon King, Valvados. What will become of her? Just then the legendary hero, Alfred appears!" Both Yuffie and I saw a familiar head of Chocobo hair run out onto stage.

"Is that Cloud?" Yuffie almost snorted at the "legendary hero", I covered my mouth seeing Cloud's face look extremely uncomfortable on stage.

And it only got better from there.

The rest of the play was a veritable laughing stock with Yuffie and I laughing the hardest and loudest out of anyone in the audience. One thing Cloud did not get from Zack was the ability to play off even the most awkward of situations. The characters coming in like ballerinas made his eyes twitch, his lines were loud but completely monotonous, and he would mess up by asking the wrong character what to do. It was the ending that had me and Yuffie dying, Cloud had attempted to kiss Aeris who was Princess Rosa only to kiss the dragon. The hilarity ensued when the actors made the dragon switch with a beautiful girl and ending the story about how the power of love prevails, leaving Aeris in the middle of the stage completely clueless at what had happened. I swear, Yuffie and I must have busted out guts at the end. Both of us wiped our tears of mirth before exiting the stage.

Knowing Cloud and Aeris would go to the gondola next I dragged Yuffie to the Chocobo Square. I know that if this was going to be an enjoyable night, I would have to appeal to Yuffie's interests. One of those was stealing materia and gil, so I would make her some to keep.

And was I lucky tonight. One of the first races had Chocobo Joe and I bet everything on him since he was an S class racer, along with another decent looking jockey. Yuffie was jumping for joy when my bet won and when I offered her the cat bell I got as a gift to her. I was overjoyed when she accepted and placed it around her wrist, saying she liked the way it sounded. Next we played games in Wonder Square, not for prizes, but mostly for fun. It was nice to hear Yuffie laugh when I was kicked out by the attendant when "I abused my height and the small space to the basket to win over five hundred GP."

"So what now?" She asked. I pulled her arm without telling her to the Round Square tube and pushed her in before following. When we got through, she saw we were at the Gondola and her eyes lit up.

"Two tickets please." The attendant smiled at us and told us to enjoy the sights. We both got on and were being pulled through a dark tunnel, when we got through the end both of us were excited by the sights. It was the heart of Gold Saucer; you could see people running around having the time of their lives, the Battle Square stadium where we could see combatants taking on monsters. Even the stage we were at not too long ago was now performing another show. A roller-coaster of screaming people even passed by next to us.

"Wow." Yuffie said when we passed by with the lights that came on as we passed.

"You can say that again." I said. We went right next to the Chocobo tracks where multiple jockeys where racing, both of our eyes aglow. But the best part was when Yuffie pulled me over the edge to look at Gold Saucer from below. The fireworks below us lit up the tiny gondola. The sounds of explosions actually relaxed me. I looked over at Yuffie who was staring still. Her dark brown eyes now having tints of every color flash along them...I always thought Yuffie was cute for a character...but...

"You're staring Nate." I was pulled from my thoughts when I realized she was looking at me now while I was just gawking.

"Sorry!" I turned and rubbed the back of my neck. Of all the times to space out!

"Its fine Nate, after all, it's hard not to stare at a beauty like me!" I almost felt relieved at her boosting her own ego until she suddenly hugged me tightly, her head on my shoulder looking away from me and out the window.

"Um...Yuffie?"

"I just felt like doing this okay?" She said quickly. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth I hugged her back. I felt a little dejected she didn't give me a kiss like she would have Cloud, but this was fine, she really held on to me though, like she wanted to stay that way...and I admit I wanted that too.

"Hey, say something why don't you..." I chuckled at her feeling awkward about the situation.

"Thanks for coming out with me Yuffie, it's been a really fun night." I really couldn't find better words but they seemed to comfort her into relaxing more into the hug. I was very disappointed when the ride ended and we started walking back to the hotel. We got inside and I walked her to her room.

"Thanks, it was really fun." I smiled.

"Maybe we could do this again sometime." She was smiling now.

"I'll think about it. Thanks for the date Nate." She closed the door before I could try to convince her it wasn't one. But I gave up, happy she considered it one. I still wish I got that kiss though! Sigh, baby steps I guess. I walked into my room. Now tired from the night, I knew I was going to sleep well. Everything went better than expected actually. Looks like things are going my way.

"Nathan! It's Barret, Cloud wants everyone up now to discuss something important! Get up, no more sleep."

By all that is holy and just, I will kick Cait's ass so hard Reeve with have my foot coming out of his mouth for ruining my mood!


	25. Chapter 25

Nothing new to report, but i have a thing i want to say.

You see one of my latest reviews came from someone using the anonymous reviewer. What makes this dood or doodet special enough to be mentioned now? because i have gotten the exact same message from two other people and i can never git enough of it.

its the one where said person doesn't like Self Insertions but just happened to stumble upon mine and really get into the story. I just want this guy to know that is one of the highest compliments i think i can receive on this website.

Now enough with all this recognition junk. We're getting to the good parts of the story now. And every awesome idea i have had for this story is slowly coming to fruition. I am giggling in excitement on how everyone will react! Lets read on audience!

* * *

><p>Ch 25<p>

"We had a spy the entire time!" Barret yelled at the top of his lungs. The whole group was in the middle of the lobby with Cloud and Aeris standing by a sad looking Cait.

"He has been working for Shinra, giving away our position as well as giving them the Keystone," Cloud said with scorn.

"What are we going to do with him?" Tifa asked folding her arms.

"Nothing." Cloud's response made damn near the entire group go in an uproar. "He has Marlene as well as Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie hostage. We have to take him along." So the three are still okay, that's a relief.

"What's the plan?" Nanaki asked.

"Meet back here in twenty minutes; we have to get there now so Shinra doesn't get to Sephiroth first. Cait Sith knows the way." Everyone nodded and heaed to their respective rooms. I groaned along the way.

"Is it just a running gag now that I can't get enough sleep? Honestly my old friends don't have to go through any of this shit."

"Nate, quit your bitching," Barret said.

"Honestly my friends will take a girl out, have a good and/or bad time, take them home, then the next day watch Saturday morning cartoons and be happy about everything. Me? I take a girl out for the first time in my life; have an awesome time, and then when I get into my bed I get taken out because a robot cat is working for a business that wants to kill us. I can bitch all I want."

"Whatever." Barret said, opening his room door before looking back at me. "Wait you took a girl out? Who the hell was it?" I bit my tongue.

"None of your business." I quickly went into my room and started going over my stuff before putting on my Genji Gloves and walking back into the lobby to wait for the rest of the group. I smiled and waved at Yuffie who did the same, and five minutes later I glared at a very snarky looking Barret. Great, he's going to try to bust on me for that now.

"Oh yeah, the Temple of the Ancients. If we take the Tiny Bronco east towards the sea we should be able to find it. Shall we get going?" Cait asked cheerfully only to have the entire group walk past him and out the door. The entire way to the Bronco nobody spoke. Almost everyone was surprised that Cait was a spy. Happy go lucky, uncaring, tiny, fuzzy cat, Cait was a Shinra spy, hell if I didn't know about it before I would have been surprised just because I trust cats, especially adorable ones. I really couldn't care less about the situation. I was driving the Tiny Bronco again so I would ask him if I was going in the right direction. That elicited glares from everyone in the group, even stoic Vincent, who I now couldn't hang with for quiet times.

So I talked with the enemy, he'll be a cool guy like three years from now! He'll basically be Vincent's only support besides Yuffie too. Actually, what was the plot to Dirge of Cerberus again? ...in fact how long has it been since I played a decent game? Weeks? Almost a month has gone by. Wow, I have been here for a long time...wonder what's happened while I was gone. I know my parents would have freaked the shit out by the time they got home; my brothers would do what they could to find me. Being gone a month though would mean any normal investigations would have ended if I left no evidence.

Perhaps time doesn't flow normal here. Maybe by the time I get back I would have only been gone a few minutes, possibly seconds. Or maybe I'm dead... now that's a morbid thought, but not something to disregard. I punched a TV in a thunderstorm, I'm sure if I survived that… yeah I'd totally be fine after something like that... in fact since I have time how the hell did I get here? I'm not dissing really, I mean one of my dreams was always to travel into games and experience them first hand, minus the actual possibility of dying and all. But why would I be sent at this point in time? Honestly, if I prepared I wouldn't be as messed up as I am now...then again I wouldn't be as good as I was now either.

Average swordsmanship thanks to Cloud now that I don't just wave Masamune or Fusion around like I would in the beginning, I'm even a juggernaut when it came to magic, and I defiantly know it's not because I'm smart that I have higher magic abilities, what makes me so special? I know humans here are more powerful than back home...since magic is tied to mental abilities maybe having a split personality helps.

I snorted, knowing there is something crazy inside you is one thing, knowing it can get out and try to kill everyone you consider precious because of your emotional state freaks me out. Why would it have to be me...I don't even know how to get rid of him without years of therapy! What am I going to do when shit hits the fan at the crater? Sigh, I have been through too much in this world. What I wouldn't give for anything from earth.

"Hey Nathan, you okay? You got this funny look in your eye?" Barret tapped on the glass.

"Just thinking about why I exist here." Now he had the weird look and walked off muttering "oddball". I turned to look at a glim Cait.

"How much further?" He perked up at me talking to him. Can Reeve control his actions? Or does Cait have his own personality? Man, that's the closest these guys are going to get with AI's, Cait is controlled and acts independent too.

"We're coming close to the island now. Just let me lead when we land." Another shot of glares from most of the group, Nanaki just shook his head and Yuffie would glare most at Cait considering her history with Shinra.

"Kid, what are you doing talking all civil with the enemy?" Cid tried to whisper/yell at me, it sounded more like him projecting his voice in my direction.

"Look the guy took the Keystone, yeah dick move. But did we even know where the hell this island was? We got lucky with that lead with the weapon's collector; I don't think we would be again. In actuality Cait helped us. We know where the temple is. We bust in, take whatever is in the temple, run out, and then we continue from there." Everyone on the ship seemed to contemplate my words. Cloud looked the most irritated since he knew I was right, I received a few questionable stares but before anyone could debunk me, we landed. Cait jumped ahead while everyone else followed. The forests around the temple were different from normal trees. It was basically a forest of Weeping Willows; it was the temple that got everyone's attention though.

It seemed like a stereotypical Mayan temple, but I've never seen one in person, so looking at this place up close was a whole new experience. It had an old rope bridge, broken and aged walls, and the entire place felt like even though it was clearly abandoned, life was still bustling. Aeris went ahead of the group and fell to the ground. We were about to check if she was ill only to see a serene smile on her face.

"This is the Temple of the Ancients. I know...I feel it...the knowledge of the ancients...floating. You could become one with the Planet, but you're stopping it with the strength of your will. For you? For us?"

"What are you saying? Aeris, do you understand what's going on?" Asked Cloud, she just stood up and ran ahead of the group, stopping on the first steps onto the temple.

"You're uneasy... But happy? Because I'm here? I don't understand... I want to go inside!" She yelled at us.

"Aeris calm down, you're mumbling." Tifa said.

"Yeah you're acting all weird." Barret added.

"But...it's like I can hear them all, every Ancient that once lived here. All of their voices still talking even when they are all gone." She looked around, as if seeing what we couldn't.

"The Ancients were a powerful race, more so than mine. All I hear are mumbles, but I can still feel a presence here." Nanaki said.

"We should go; we're already behind Shinra and Sephiroth." The group went up the stairs. At the very top was a cloaked figure much liked the ones in Nibelheim. Everyone was cautious while approaching, then the person just started talking.

"Black...Materia..." He gurgled; he had several wounds and had a small puddle of blood around him. Aeris knelt down and uncovered the cloth on his arm.

"Look."

"It's a number nine tattoo." Vincent stated.

"Another one of these... people. Why are they here?" Tifa questioned.

Cloud came up and looked at the man. "Last time we saw them Sephiroth was near." I walked over; the man was taking uneven and shallow breaths. I braced myself and took off his hood. He looked exactly the same as the woman at the mansion. Nearly bald, malnourished, white eyes. I heard the group gasp at the man's features. He looked at me before finally letting out a breath and slumping down on the ground. I felt so horrible seeing him. What was he like before Hojo changed him? Did he have a family? Friends? I shook the thoughts away and closed his eyes.

"Did you know about this person?" I looked and saw Cloud confronting Cait.

"No, there isn't anyone in Shinra that looks as bad as that." The cat waved his mogs hands.

"Test subjects." Everyone looked at Vincent. "When I was a Turk, Hojo had some humans for tests. They would usually be from destroyed towns."

"Nibelheim... They used to be from Nibelheim." Cloud concluded. Both he and Tifa had serious looks on their faces.

"Not all of them, there are more of these people than your town's population. He must have gotten more elsewhere." Vincent added.

"Let's just get the hell outta here. Seeing dead people gives me the creeps." Cid said. However Aeris was already in and called the group.

"Guys look who's in here!" We all went inside and slumped in the middle of the place was Tseng in his own smaller puddle of blood while more stained his suit.

"Tseng? Of the Turks?" Cloud exclaimed. The man in question groaned and slowly got up. His left hand was holding his limp right arm. He could only get up to one knee.

"Uh...I've been had." He tried to stand only to fall back against the alter of the room. He didn't look at the group when he spoke.

"It's not the Promised Land...Sephiroth is searching for."

"So Sephiroth is here." Cloud clenched his fist. The Turk pointed to his right arm's injury that cut clear across his suit as well.

"See for yourself" He then slammed his hand on the floor. "Damn. Letting Aeris go was the start...of my bad luck." His breaths were quick now. "The president was wrong."

"You were wrong! The Promised Land is like you imagined. I would never have helped. Either way, Shinra couldn't win." Tseng started laughing lightly at Aeris words.

"Pretty harsh. Sounds like...something you'd say." He let go of his arm and reached into his suit. The group was on guard until he pulled out the Keystone and was surprisingly able to throw it.

"The Keystone...place it...on the alter..." He crawled out of the way and sat next to one of the columns. Keeping one eye open and on us.

"How do we know it's not a trap? We could place this and then the entire Shinra army could be coming our way."

"No one knows...you're here...but me." His words were getting slower and heavier in breaths. Cloud looked and saw Aeris off in a corner.

"You crying?" She turned and shook her head but a few tears ran down her face.

"Tseng's with our enemy, the Turks. But I've known him since we were little. There are not a lot of people I can say that about. In fact, there are only a handful of people in the world who really know me." Everyone looked at Aeris. No one really did understand that she had few friends, and none of them understood her. Tseng was the one Turk who kept an eye on Aeris for years and never really tried to catch her. No matter how much she could have hated him, he was the only one that really knew who she was.

"We should go, Sephiroth is ahead. We need to catch up." Cloud said. The whole group nodded.

"Aeris, could I see a Restore materia?" I asked. She handed me one and I walked over to Tseng. He was trying to stay conscious. I lifted his sleeve and healed his arm wound as well as the one on his shoulder.

"Nathan what are you doing? He's the enemy!" Barret yelled.

"As much as a lot of people here would like to see him die, I can't in good conscience watch. He was going to live anyway." Tseng eyes widened, but he couldn't say much of anything.

"You've been acting a little too kind to Shinra employees Nathan." Vincent's eyes narrowed at me.

"Enough, I don't want the group fighting about something now." Cloud ordered. Then he turned his attention on me. "Nathan, I can understand you don't like to kill people yourself or watch them die, but you can't be healing our enemies like some bleeding heart kid." I'm eighteen you asshole! I'm only three years behind you!

"Fine, I understand." I said, now looking at the Turk. "You owe me a favor now, and considering how you act I know you have some semblance of honor, so...DON'T fuck with us anymore." I got up and tossed Aeris back her materia. Hopefully now Tseng will be an asset when we have to team up against Sephiroth. Everyone gathered around the podium and Cloud placed the Keystone on the altar. Lights started to flash and everyone suddenly started sinking into the ground.

Actually the correct term would be phasing since I didn't even feel the ground as we slowly descended through it. Then our center of gravity shifted and we started going back up only to end up somewhere completely different. It was the map that looked like that painting of paradox stairs.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Yuffie announced when she became solid.

"Don't you dare puke on me or I will turn you into a shish-kabob!" Cid yelled. Aeris ignored them and stepped forward again.

"Words...feelings...So many of them here." She said.

"There aren't any exits. Looks like we have to keep going," Cait said. Suddenly Aeris ran up to Cloud.

"Cloud, I know it's going to be tough but...don't give up! We can do it!" While Aeris was talking to Cloud I looked around the place and saw someone peek around a corner and turn back.

"Guys, there's someone here!" Everyone turned in time to see the figure start to run away.

"After him!" Cloud yelled and everyone started towards the man. Since we didn't have the horrible view the game gave of the map we knew what areas were accessible and where others were obviously blocked off. But the problem was that what looked like a small old man ran faster than anyone in the group. When we finally caught the thing it was just sitting in the middle of some old room.

"Who are you? Asked Cloud. The only thing anyone heard him say was a few ethereal mumbles.

"Did anyone else get that? I sure as hell didn't." I asked. Everyone else agreed except for Aeris whole knelt in front of the person, looking completely cheerful about the situation.

"Whew, we finally caught up to you. I'm sorry you waited for me." The old man seemed to hop excitedly. Aeris stood up and gestured towards him.

"Those are the spirit bodies of the Ancients. They've been away from the Planet for a long time to protect the temple. Over the years they've lost the ability to talk...actually they didn't need words from the beginning because there was only one objective left in the temple." She turned back to the spirit.

"Please, talk to me!" The spirit seemed to communicate with Aeris, but she sighed.

"No good, I don't understand the rest... Are you afraid? Is it Sephiroth? Maybe something else..."

"Aeris are you okay? You're kinda freaking me out." Yuffie blurted out.

"Yeah this is getting way too complicated." Barret added.

"Being the only Ancient, she can understand what the souls of other Ancients are feeling. She can interpret from there." Nanaki explained.

"It can't help us, let's move on." Everyone left the room. We explored more of the place before we saw another small old man. Aeris ran ahead while everyone tried to keep up. Eventually we entered a large hallway with what seemed like an endless hole at one end and large boulders being rolled into it. The group was silent for a good five minutes before I broke it.

"So...who wants to set an example for the rest of the group?"

"I see small areas a person can squish in to avoid them." Cloud said.

"I can't fit in there! How the hell am I gunna get by?"

"Your big ass can still fit under those holes, just duck when it gets near." Cid added.

"Hell no!"

"Barret we all have to get by somehow." Tifa said.

"Ain't there another way?" He pleaded.

"The only way to get to that spirit is through here, it was leading us for a reason."

"Why am I the only one who has to duck?" Barret whined. I couldn't hold in my laughter and busted out hearing how pitiful his voice was.

Cloud stepped forward "If it makes you feel better, Nate and myself will do the same."

"Fuck that noise, why do I have to risk my ass!" I yelled.

"Because you were the only one that laughed. You get to see how Barret feels."

"...Cloud...sometimes...you really suck...like a lot."

"I don't care. Now we'll be running at the same time, so time it as I do, duck when I do. Both of you understand?" Barret and I nodded.

"It looks like there's a room over there, so go for that then we can go the rest of the way." Aeris said. Everyone else went ahead. Every time a boulder passed they would just squish into the wall space and run out when was past them. After an agonizing amount of time it was Barret, Cloud, and my turn.

"On my mark," Cloud said. When he yelled we all ran at the same speed when a boulder came toward us.

"Duck!" All of us knelt down right when the missing chunk of the boulder went over all of us without touching.

"Move!" We all ran and had to duck underneath three more boulders before we came to the room where everyone else was staring at a huge purple puddle. We all approached when Aeris started speaking.

"It's full of the knowledge of the Ancients...no...a conscience...a living soul. It's trying to say something...I don't understand" She put her ear right next to the liquid while talking to it.

"What is it? ...danger? ...an evil conscience...you're going to show me?" The room suddenly became too bright and I closed my eyes. When I opened them back up I saw everyone was suddenly transparent and in a completely different room with a healthy Tseng and Elena.

"What's going on?" Asked Cloud. He sounded warbled and distorted.

"It's showing us!" Aeris pointed to the two Turks. Elena ran over to Tseng, pointing at the murals in the room.

"Tseng what is this? Can we find the Promised Land with this?" I looked at the murals and noticed they looked... Egyptian... a Mayan temple with Egyptian hieroglyphics. Next thing we see is some Peruvian artifacts, or maybe a few Terracotta Soldiers, let's just throw in everything Earth has and make them into the old history of Final Fantasy, how about that? The creators of this game lazed about on that front.

"I wonder, anyway we have to report to the President." Elena nodded and headed for the exit. Just stopping short of exiting and looking back.

"Be careful Tseng." He turned.

"Yeah...Hey Elena. How about dinner after this job is over?" The request seemed to stun the female Turk before she stumbled for an answer.

"Th...Thank you very much. If I may be excused." She ran out when Tseng chuckled and shook his head. He went up to the hieroglyphics and studied them more.

"Is this the Promised Land? No it can't be..."Suddenly a chill went down my spine. The group must have felt it too because they were looking around. Sephiroth started to materialize behind Tseng. It wasn't until he was solid that the Turk turned to see the silver haired general.

"Sephiroth!" He didn't reach for his gun, he just stood in shock. Sephiroth looked at him with smirk.

"So you opened the door. Well done." Tseng walked up to him and pointed at the pictures.

"This place...what is it?" Sephiroth took a few steps close. Tseng took a few back until he stopped.

"A lost treasure throve of knowledge. The wisdom of the Ancients" He turned and lifted his arms in a grand gesture. "I am becoming one with the Planet."

"One with the Planet?" Tseng questioned. Sephiroth turned. An astral projection of himself split and walked in our direction. Tseng didn't seem to notice.

"You stupid fouls never even thought about it. All the spirit energy of the Planet, all its wisdom... its knowledge. I will meld with it. I will become it, and it will become me." Tseng was taken off by the proclamation.

"You can do that?" Both Sephiroth's arms fell down to his side. The smirk now replaced by his usual stone cold demeanor.

"The way...lies here." In a flash of speed Sephiroth cut down Tseng. "Only death awaits you. But do not fear. For it is through death a new spirit is born, and you will become a part of me." He started laughing over the still body of the injured Turk. The image started to fade when I opened my eyes to see everyone was back around the pond.

"Did you see it?" Aeris asked.

"An illusion created by the Ancients." Nanaki mumbled.

"Why is this place so freaky?" Yuffie added.

"Where is this room...with the pictures on the walls?"

"We're almost there." Aeris ran to the end of the room and restarted the whole process of dodging the boulders.

"Sephiroth is here...no matter what he thinks, it's going to end now, I'm taking him out!" No one argued, so we all went back and started dodging again. Cloud, Barret and I were the last ones again, and right when we passed the boulders stopped coming.

"Right now it runs out of boulders. Of all the times it could have stopped in that flashback sequence it chooses now to run out. Whoop dee doo!" I threw my hands in the air. Barret had a similar feeling as I did and started punching the wall. Cid was cursing up a storm and everyone else seemed annoyed.

"It was a test...we were never actually in real danger." Aeris said while talking to the temple Sage.

"I'll remember that the next Trial of Fire we have. I'll just walk through the flames." Man that is total bullshit game logic. Cloud made us move ahead when we came upon a gigantic clock in the middle of the room. A loud booming voice suddenly came out of nowhere.

"I am the Time Guardian. Ye who seek the knowledge of the Ancients. I control time, select your path."

"A riddle... another block for intruders." Cloud said.

"Speaking of time is it getting late? What's it like almost ten thirty, ten twenty five, right?" I asked out loud, knowing full well how the clock room worked. Suddenly, the room's hands shifted so it had the small one on us and the big hand on the room with the Roman numeral five.

It is time...you may proceed." Everyone else seemed confused at the action.

"Nate how did you do that?" Asked Cait. I shrugged.

"I seriously just wanted to know what time it was. I didn't think it controlled the clock." I saw out the corner of my eyes that Vincent narrowed his at me. What is with the guy, he's been glaring at me all day!

"Let's just see where it leads." Squashing that thought I moved with the rest of the group to the next area. We got outside and found the ribbon which was my plan. We went back.

"What time now?" Asked Nanaki. Cloud thought for a moment before Aeris stepped forward.

"Four twenty five." Yes! Thank you Aeris! The clock rotates and we all take the path. We eventually end up in a room with a chest on at the top of some steps. Aeris went up to it.

"They're telling me this will help us on our journey." She opened the chest and pulled out a beautiful looking staff with a golden butterfly at the top of it with a red ruby center.

"The Ancients praying staff... the Princess Guard." Everyone looked at the weapon before she put it on her back.

"It's powerful. It will help a lot against Sephiroth." Everyone started out the room when we came back to the clock.

"What now? Cid asked.

"Hey Nate say another time, we might get lucky again!" Yuffie asked. I shrugged and looked around the room, pretending to debate which one to choose.

"Let's go with...four thirty." The clock moved accordingly. We all ended up outside when we all saw another sage wonder out of a room and see us. He ran when Aeris went to investigate the entrance and she came back.

"It's locked. We have to catch it...You must be tired." She suddenly switched topics. Cloud rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably.

"A little, Nate did say it was getting late." Aeris smiled.

"Hang in there, someday we'll look back at these times and laugh." Aeris ran off to catch the sage leaving everyone else confused.

"Is Aeris...alright?" Tifa was the first to question this.

"The Ancients are constantly speaking to her; it's a burden she has to hear them all. She's not trying to break under the pressure." Vincent said.

"Come on, let's go catch that sage!" Cait said running forward. Yuffie yelled excitedly and the rest of us went as well. The next ten minutes were completely crazy. Trying to catch the spirit was a hassle since there was an extremely complex cave system that it would run around. I can't remember how many times I bumped into someone looking for the thing. Finally Cloud had enough and stationed everyone at a doorway and chased the spirit until it ran into someone else, which happened to be Nanaki. Tifa got the Work Gloves which were cool. But it took another five minutes before everyone was back at the top to open the door.

"This is the room with the murals." Aeris said looking around.

"Where are you Sephiroth!" Cloud yelled out. Right on cue, Sephiroth, or afterimages of him appeared in front of the group, ascending into the air.

"So cold, I am always by your side. Come" His images flashed through the halls and the group ran down following them until we saw his solid form looking at the murals.

"Splendid." He walked toward us with Masamune drawn. Everyone prepped their own weapons when he stopped.

"A treasure house of knowledge." Cloud shook his head and threw his hands out in fury.

"I don't understand what you're saying!" The man laughed before his images teleported him again. The group ran over again to see him smiling.

"Look well."

"At what?" Cloud was clearly annoyed by now, and so was everyone else.

"At that which adds knowledge of...I am becoming one with the Planet." He disappeared again.

"Okay, I am tired, let's just kick Sephiroth's ass next time we see him!" Barret yelled. I agreed. Sephiroth was stuck on replay and I wasn't amused. We ran again until we reached the end of the room. Next to the altar was Sephiroth, but he was sitting down, hugging his knees to himself.

"...Mother...it's almost time..." His voice was now completely distorted. Having multiple voices just milliseconds appear after it.

"Soon...we will become one." He stood up when the group surrounded him. Aeris yelled at him.

"How do you intend to become one with the Planet?" He swung his sword around. The group backed away even though it was slow enough an eight year old could dodge it.

"It's simple. When the Planet is hurt it gathers spirit energy to heal the injury. The amount of energy depends on the size of the injury." He started to become distorted again. He slammed his sword into the ground.

"What would happen if there was an injury that threatened the very life of the Planet? Think how much energy would be gathered! And at the center of the energy will be me! All that boundless energy will be mine. By merging with all that energy I will become a new life form, a new existence." He was shifting around now. An insane glint in his eye as he slowly stopped being solid and the afterimages shifted more.

"Melding with the Planet...I will cease to exist now...only to become God and rule over every soul!" Everyone in the group was frozen at the idea. Sephiroth turning into God...the mere thought of the idea made everyone afraid.

"An injury powerful enough to destroy the Planet? Injure... the Planet?"

"Behold that mural. The Ultimate Destructive Magic...Meteor!" His sword pointed to the right where there was a picture of people kneeling on the ground. Flames fell from the sky destroying the land while a large meteorite was about to crash into them.

"That will never happen!" Sephiroth finally lost his solid form and shifted through Cloud, knocking him on the ground.

"Wake up!" Cloud immediately got up and ran around the room.

"Where are you? Sephiroth!" he ran back through the halls.

"Cloud, wait!" Aeris shouted. Everyone followed until he suddenly stopped in front of one of the murals. He was laughing under his breath and had the same afterimages Sephiroth had.

"Cloud!" Aeris called again, now pleading." He only glanced at her before laughing louder than before. The whole group was stunned.

"Cloud, get a hold of yourself, fight it off!" I shouted. Again another glance and he was louder than before.

"Black Materia... Call Meteor."

"Cloud, stop this now!" Nanaki joined in. His arms moved in a grand gesture before the suddenly went to clutch his head and he suddenly had a pained expression on his face.

"Cloud...I'm...Cloud...who should I…" He suddenly started shifting around. He looked as if he was having a seizure but his facial expressions changed every time he changed position. Different emotions flew by with each pose he would use in everyday life around us. He finally stopped and shook his head.

"I remember! I remember my way." Everyone stood still looking at his calm face now.

"...Cloud?" Aeris slowly approached him. He raised an eyebrow.

"Mm? What's wrong. Is something wrong?" Aeris quickly shook her head and put on a fake smile.

"...it's nothing. So don't worry about it...right...it's nothing" She looked at us and we all saw the pleading look in her eyes, telling us to keep quiet about what happened to Cloud and how he somehow doesn't remember. She turned back to him.

"Sephiroth got away." Cloud clenched his fists then looked at the whole group.

"Don't worry about it… I understand what he was saying... this is Meteor right?" Another mural of the magic was right in front of him.

"Something huge is falling from the sky." Yuffie said.

"That's what he's going to use!" Cid's eyes were wide at the picture of how big Meteor was compared to the people.

"This must be the magic... just what Sephiroth was saying...the Ultimate Destructive Magic...Meteor." She turned towards the group.

"It finds small drifting planets with its magic, and then collides with them. The Planet might get wiped out entirely..." Suddenly the entire room started shaking. A wall behind us fell through the floor to show another room.

"Sephiroth?" Everyone heard a laugh out of nowhere.

"It's not me." I looked into the dark room and saw two large red eyes staring at the group. A large growl was heard.

"Guys, run now!"


	26. Chapter 26

A/N Hello audience! I must say i have been twitching with excitement at this next few chapters, in fact i can promise these next either three, for, possibly five chapters will have some moments none of you saw coming. I really don't have anything else to mention besides a small internet reward to Velkan Wulf who now holds the most consecutive reviews in a week at basically one a day. Congratulations you won! Now it is on audience!

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><p>Ch 26<p>

The outburst was followed by a large burst of fire flowing from the room. Everyone moved out of the way when the giant red dragon moved into the hallway, keeping its eyes on the group.

"What is a dragon doing here?" Yuffie yelled out before throwing her weapon at the large reptile. The shuriken harmlessly bounced off of the dragon's hide as it snorted. Barret ignored the display and started shooting at the dragon only for the bullets to sink in a little, and the boss came charging at the group making everyone scatter around the beast.

"Damn that thing's tough." Barret growled as he reloaded.

"It has to have a weakness. Find it." Cloud said right when the dragon lunged and tried to eat the two, but both dodged while it crashed into the ground. Taking advantage of the opening I got Fusion and tried to stab one of its legs only for the blade to stop four inches in and for the dragon to kick me and the blade away and into Aeris and Tifa.

"Fuck, that skin is thick." I helped the other two up who in turn kept back as support. Neither of their styles would harm the dragon.

"Keep it distracted, I'll use a summons." Aeris called as she started concentrating on her spell. Nanaki attacked the dragon's tail and bit down, causing it to roar and thrash around. Nanaki, to his credit, held on for a while before the boss slammed him into the wall. Cloud ran up and tried to cut the dragon with his sword. But the huge chunk of metal only got a few inches deep before the dragon caught on and tried to eat Cloud only for him to use the sword to block the mouth and get pushed into a wall.

"Cloud needs help!" Tifa yelled.

"I got it!" Aeris yelled. Suddenly the room started shaking and I looked around, then from the same room the dragon was in, something started walking out.

Titan was clearly larger than any living creature I had seen in my life. The giant had to duck to fit inside the entire room, but it easily outsized the dragon. The summon threw a punch at the dragon, knocking it across the room but the dragon got back up and started charging Titan. He braced himself and grappled with the giant lizard before throwing it to the side and attacking again while the dragon countered by breathing fire. The attack didn't look like it did damage to the summon but he suddenly started fading from existence.

"God damn it why is summoning time so short!" I charged a bolt spell and threw it at the dragon. The attack shocked the dragon but also annoyed it making me its new target. Instead of turning around it swept its tail knocking, me into a nearby wall. Thank god I wasn't smashed, that almost cracked my spine!

"Everyone huddle!" Tifa yelled. I quickly ran to her side thinking there was an area effect attack only to see her cast a few spells on the party. The first of which was Cure so everyone was in better shape. The next was Barrier; a thin line appeared around each person before disappearing. She then surprised me by casting Haste on the group. After having the spell cast on me I realized a few things about Time materia.

First of all, I still felt the same. No extra fast reflexes, no speed, nothing. However, everything else besides my friends moved...slower really. Granted I wasn't a cheetah going up against a hippo, but the speed difference was noticeable. Which is why everyone saw the tail swipe coming and jumped out of the way.

"We need to get past that skin!" Cloud yelled out. I was racking my brain. The Red Dragon didn't have any weaknesses and absorbed fire...but it was susceptible to Poison!

"Who has Poison?" I called while launching another lightning to keep the boss at bay.

"I do!" Nanaki called. Good, he was used to the materia by now.

"Try to bite hard enough to get the spell working inside it. It'll get weaker as we fight." I dodged another tail swipe.

"I need a distraction to find a weak enough part!" Nanaki jumped back from the dragon's flaming breath.

"Coming right up!" What came as a shock was Cid ran forward and jumped high enough to actually hit the dragon across its face with his spear. Being the newest target of the boss, it swiped at him only for the surprisingly agile old man to dodge over and over again. The entire group was almost shocked seeing Cid fight so effectively.

"Where the hell is that damn attack you over grown cat?" Cid yelled. Nanaki snapped out of watching at the spectacle and charged the dragon's head, which was now on the ground after an attempt at eating Cid.

"Go for the eyes, Nanaki! Go for the eyes!" He jumped and hit spot on as the dragon roared and knocks Nanaki off. Targeting him with one less eye. The dragon had a new found vigor and swiped at Nanaki, and when he dodged blew a very large fireball at him. Reacting, I ran up holding out my right hand and concentrating on my fire materia. The fireball impacted, but with the element added to my Genji gloves I was only pushed back by the force.

"Awesome!" I was suddenly pulled back by Tifa when the dragon's tail crashed down on where I was formerly standing.

"Don't lose focus now!" She yelled.

"Right." We still have a fairly dangerous dragon on our hands. Can't celebrate now. The now half blind dragon started to rampage more in the fight thanks to the poison now striking its brain. It would thrash its tail, swipe with its claws, and it seemed to have no end while breathing fire. Attacking it in this condition was suicide basically, so everyone used distance attacks. Cait was particularly useful with his mega phone, causing the dragon to stop with his ear splitting sounds.

"I think I can cut it, get out the way." Everyone moved from the dazed lizard when Cloud heaved his sword onto his shoulder then let it crash down onto the temple floor. A bright energy wave flew from the swords impact and went straight for the dragon's tail. Cloud's Blade Beam caused the boss to thrash around more, now missing one of its appendages.

"It's still dangerous." Vincent stated, he had been shooting at the dragon's head the entire time.

"Come on we can take it!" Yuffie yelled before jumping out the way of the rampaging dragon.

"We need another distraction to finish it." Cloud said.

"Who?" Aeris asked. The entire conversation I was trying to remember techniques from other games to stop the boss, or at least hinder it. I don't remember any Limit Breaks that targeted specific monsters. Maybe I'm looking at this from the wrong angle. Come on think! Any other Final Fantasy must have some kind of ultimate attack!

I slapped my face when the idea hit me, I didn't always have to do Limit Breaks, just copying basic attacks from other games helped. I must be a meat head for not thinking of this earlier.

"I can distract it." Everyone who wasn't fighting looked at me. "But I need everyone to finish it quick, otherwise I'm going to end up paste on a wall after too long."

"You're sure you can keep its attention?" Tifa asked. I nodded while pulling out Masamune.

"Sure of it." I started focusing on the highest level lighting spell I could muster. The gauntlets started to crackle and the blade soon had electrical currents running up and down. I smiled, Steiner thought of a pretty good idea, and I was my own Vivi, so I can pull off the spell blades all on my own. I ran towards the dragon's cut tail, jumped and stabbed Masamune as deep as I could into the exposed skin and let the lightning spell flow. Immediately the dragon started to ram into walls and try to imprint me into them.

"Alright, kill the thing already!" I yelled as I was being tossed around. Everyone got into gear and started assaulting the dragon with everything they had. Yuffie started throwing her star and shooting magic as it flew. Cid attacked the boss's head with Nanaki and surprisingly Tifa tried to get a few hits in. Cloud cleaved a couple of smaller body parts while Vincent, Cait, and Barret hung back to either make the thing's ears bleed or riddle what they could in bullets.

With me keeping its nerves shot, the dragon didn't have a chance. After being poisoned, cut, beaten, and shocked, the boss finally went down with a thud. I tried to pull out Masamune but having electricity go through my arms, even with element absorbing gloves, still made my arms tingle. I got Barret to pull it out for me while I approached the dragon's head. You know when it's not trying to barbecue and maim you, it looked pretty cool up close, classic western dragon and all. It had a small jewel in the middle of its head though...actually it was red and the size of a materia.

"Look what we have here."

"Dibs!" Before I could take the material, Yuffie ran over and pushed me back, reaching to the dragon's head and taking the summoning materia.

"Yes! I got a materia! It's mine now!" She started cheering.

"What the hell was that for Yuffie? God my back hurts now." Not to mention my head, this is solid stone, that fall hurt.

"I just had to wait and you found another awesome materia! Now I touched it first so I get to keep it."

"Yuffie, you could have just asked me and I would have let you use one of the materia I found."

"You never let me near your materia."

"Because you never ask!"

"Quiet down. Is Sephiroth nearby?" Cloud said.

"No he just disappeared." Aeris said.

"Look around the room." He ordered.

"I found something new, look!" Nanaki yelled at the end of the temple. Everyone went near the altar and found a floating image of the entire place in the middle; it had a very dark center.

"What is it?" Cloud asked.

"Something's written down here." Aeris looked at the side of the stone which had an odd looking dialect on it.

"B.L.A.C.K...M.A.T.E.R.I.A" She pronounced slowly. The room grew tense hearing the words.

"Black Materia!" Cloud shouted breaking everyone out of the mood.

"This is what Sephiroth wanted?" Tifa said looking at the image.

"This has the power to call Meteor. A simple materia has the power to destroy the world." Nanaki said in awe.

"Why didn't he take it when we were all distracted?" Barret asked.

"Perhaps the dragon was the temple guardian. It had to be killed before this appeared." Vincent mused.

"That still means he could have done it himself, Sephiroth could have taken the dragon easily." Cloud said with a thoughtful look.

"Well we're here, he's not. Let's take the materia and keep going." Yuffie said. Cloud nodded and reached for the materia. When he grasped it the entire complex started shaking and he quickly removed his hand.

"What the hell just happened?" Cid grumbled getting up from the floor.

"I don't know, when I touched it the temple shook...another trap?"

"Let me talk to the Ancients, maybe they know." Aeris said. She closed her eyes and soon enough started mumbling words.

"I don't understand...what? ...Really?" She opened her eyes and stared back at the group with shock.

"They say the temple itself is the Black Materia." Everyone looked confused.

"I don't get it." Cloud said. Aeris sighed in frustration.

"This whole building is the Black Materia."

"The ENTIRE temple, all of it is the Black Materia...how could anyone take it then?" Aeris pointed to the image.

"You see it's very hard. This is a model, inside is a device which makes it smaller each time you solve a puzzle. As it gets smaller, you do too. Until it fits into the palm of your hand."

"So if we solve the puzzles, the temple will get smaller and smaller until we can hold it as a materia?" Cloud asked. Aeris nodded.

"But there's one thing. You can only answer the puzzles inside the temple..."

"And the solver is crushed. An ingenious fail safe." Nanaki said.

"The Ancients didn't want the magic to get into the wrong hands."

"So it is safe here." Vincent said. Cloud immediately shook his head.

"No, we've got to think of a way to get it out. Sephiroth has too many junkies working for him, it's nothing to him to throw their lives away for the Black Materia. This place isn't safe."

"Now hold on Cloud, I agree with Vince, each time we've seen these flunkies they can barely think for themselves, let alone solve puzzles. And wouldn't he need a ton depending on the puzzles?" I tried to reason. If I wanted this to get easier, I have to start by making sure Cloud can't screw anything up because of Jenova and Sephiroth influencing him.

"He'll get more; he doesn't just have people from Nibelheim, Nathan. Who knows how many of those experiments he controls, and they all somehow find ways to reach Sephiroth." Well shit he has a point...maybe I could stop him from going insane outside so he keeps the materia then. I just need to be there.

"So, what do we do?"

"I know!" Everyone looked at Cait.

"We can use my stuffed body! I won't get hurt and I have enough brains to solve any of these puzzles." Cloud scowled.

"We can't let Sephiroth get the materia, but we can't let Shinra have it either."

"Then tell me what else can you do?" No one answered. "See, everyone please trust me. I meant it when I said I felt sorry for taking the Keystone. I want to make it up to you all." Everyone else seemed to debate if they should let him.

"I have to agree, if it's not safe here then we need Cait Sith, otherwise Sephiroth will get it first."

"I don't like it, but I do too." Nanaki added.

"Just let him take the stupid orb, then we can grab it back since he can't run away with it." Cid added. Everyone else came up with similar agreements when Cloud sighed.

"Fine. Do it."

"Alright, everyone run outside, I'll start when you're all safe." Everyone started running out. We got out and into the clock room when we noticed it was stuck on twelve thirty.

"Why won't it go back to ten thirty?" Asked Aeris.

"This may be Sephiroth's trap. Stay on guard." Cloud said while everyone ran across and went into a completely blank room with a door at the end. I kept to the very back of the group; I didn't want to be surprised when the next boss sprang out. Cloud went up to the door and tried to open it.

"It's warm."

"You mean locked, right?" Cid asked.

"No it feels like the knob is heated, in fact the whole door hot...this isn't good." I looked above him and saw from the shadows a large head was slowly creeping out.

"Cloud, above!" He narrowly jumped away from a claw smashing into the ground where he had been, everyone else got their weapons out.

"What the hell is this room?" Cid said holding his spear out.

"The temple has may traps for those who want destructive power." Nanaki said. The Demons Gate roared after fully revealing itself.

"Alright you Alien rip off, let's go!" I held onto Fusion, ready to attack.

"How are we supposed to kill a wall?" Yuffie basically screamed.

"What are you talking about? AVALANCHE is made of people who would make amazing demolition crews!"

"Damn right, watch!" I heard Barret say. He loaded something into his gun arm then he shot it at the Demons Gate. The explosion took a good chunk of the wall off and the boss was screaming.

"What was that!" Tifa yelled.

"I added a grenade launcher to my gun. I say it's cool." I had to agree, his Grenade Bomb attack did some serious shit to the wall. The boss didn't take it lying down though; it tore out a chunk of the temple ceiling and threw it at Barret who was knocked to the side. Tifa went to help him only to have another piece thrown at her, making it so she couldn't reach him. The other walls started crumbling when everyone stopped to notice the Demons Gate was moving closer.

"How can a wall move?" Yuffie yelled. I made an Air-Slash and formed a deep cut in the wall, but even though the monster was clearly in pain it kept getting closer.

"The doors locked! We're trapped; it's going to crush us!" Aeris yelled out behind everyone.

"We can take it!" Cait yelled into his mike and made a sonic attack. But the problem with Demons Gate was that it was a wall, so most of the attack bounced off and cause everyone else to clench their heads in pain from the rebound.

"It's still getting closer!" Nanaki yelled.

"We need to slow that fucker down!"

"I'll handle it." The gang looked at Vincent who took off his headband. "Everyone get back!" We all went to the farthest wall while Vincent started transforming in the middle of the room. His muscles bulged out, but they were getting bigger than the Galian Beast's, growing out of his muscles were large metal screws. His skin was turning paler than normal until he was finally ash white. He got up when his transformation was done and looked back at the group. The Frankenstein face he held had metal screws attached at the corners of his mouth and his eyes had a yellow glow. Death Gigas turned back to the wall, that was now halfway across the room and charged at it. He reared back his fist and smashed hard enough to make a foot deep imprint which the boss didn't like. It cut another chunk of roof off to fall on him, but it shattered with Gigas still standing like nothing happened.

Gigas slammed its other fist into the wall and grounded itself. The amazing part was the wall actually stopped in its tracks. Suddenly electricity started flowing from it and causing the wall to screech in pain. Everyone looked surprised until we all came to our senses and started attacking. I threw fire balls at the demon's face since I could only do damage to the wall with one attack. Barret launched another grenade at the monster while Tifa was able to knock some chunks out with her fists. Aeris made sure everyone was healed while Cloud, Cid, and Nanaki went head on towards the arms and head of the wall. Cid sliced the left while Nanaki tore at the right and Cloud dealt the finishing blow, cleaving the head straight down the middle. The body parts slumped before disintegrating; the wall started crumbling down until it was a pile of rubble, the real door revealed behind it.

"Are we done with the giant fucking monsters now? I need a drink after all this crap." Cid said. Everyone started putting their weapons away and heading out.

"Alright everyone, I'll handle the rest, you take care of yourselves." Cait was ecstatic to get smashed to pieces, that guy could be happy about anything! I looked over and saw Aeris who had a bit of a remorseful look on her face. She elbowed Cloud to say something while Cait was preparing himself. Cloud tried to say something, but he would trip over his words.

"I'm not good at this." He rubbed the back of his head. The cat just bounced around more.

"I understand, I feel the same way too."

"Hey, how about you read our fortunes?" Aeris asked, a little perked up.

"Oh yeah It's been a while since I've done that." He got into his usual dance. "I'm so excited, right or wrong; I'm still the same ol' me. Now what should I predict?"

"Let's see, how compatible Cloud and I are!" I noticed Tifa's jaw drop off to the side and Yuffie giggled while Cloud's eyes were wide open. But I saw a sad look in Aeris's eyes. Makes me think if she knows what's going to happen.

"Alright here I go!" He danced around and I had to laugh at it. "Your stars are perfect! They show a great future...poor Tifa. Don't worry Cloud. I'll be your matchmaker, your preacher! Just tell me when it all happens." Almost everyone laughed at Cloud's and Tifa's expense, Aeris joined along with it.

"Thank you for believing in me, even knowing that I was a spy. This is our final, final farewell." God I know I'm going to see the cat in ten minutes, but still he knows how to tug at your heart.

"Hey Cait" He looked at me. "Why don't you give me a fortune too?" The cat perked.

"So what do you want, who do you think you're compatible with?"

"Not that kind!" I heard Barret snicker behind me. "Just give me one for something in my life in general" He nodded and did his dance, he handed me my fortune.

"A hero's path is paved with pain and self sacrifice, in the end, it is whether you remember what you stand for that makes the journey worthwhile," I read out loud.

"Awww, another dud." I smiled and patted the mogs slumped shoulders.

"I'm sure it isn't Cait, now go on and be a hero." I waved and went through the door, followed by the rest of the group.

"Come on; let's get out fast so he can get it done." Cloud said. Everyone ran out the tunnel which led to the outside of the temple, we all felt some rumbling before we started running again. We quickly found the exit and ran to the bridge when the Temple of the Ancients started glowing black and suddenly disappeared as the dark field became smaller and smaller until the outer walls blocked our views. Cloud ran in first as everyone followed.

Where the tall and vast complex once stood was now just a big crater. Everything was gone; the only thing left was a dark jewel in the middle of the huge hole.

"That's the Black Materia." Cloud said, looking deeply into the hole.

"Let's go get it." Aeris said. He nodded and turned to us.

"Everyone else stay up here, make sure no one like Shinra gets close."

"Cloud maybe you could take everyone down, it's not that big a crater if we all defend it" I reasoned. He just shook his head.

"Aeris and I can handle it, stay up here." He jumped down and Aeris followed. Everyone else started walking around the crater. I stood where I was, acting like I was keeping an eye out; I made sure to put my full attention on Cloud.

(3rd POV)

"As long as we have this Sephiroth won't be able to use Meteor." Cloud said as he picked up the materia. He could feel the aura around it much like other materia, but this one gave off something that made him want to get rid of it. Like it wasn't meant to be used. It had the exact opposite feeling of when he held Aeris's White Materia.

"Hmmm. Can you use it?" He asked her. It was the entire temple in a black orb; maybe she had some connection to it. But she shook her head.

"We can't use it right now; you need great spiritual power to use it."

"You mean lots of it?" She nodded.

"One person's power alone won't do it, only somewhere special where there is plenty of the Planet's energy...oh yeah! Like the Promised Land!"

"The Promised Land!" So that's why Sephiroth was searching for it. Without it even he couldn't use the power of the Black Materia. That was a relief. But does that mean that he found it since he was here? "No. But..."

"Sephiroth is not an Ancient. He shouldn't be able to find the Promised Land."

"Ah But I have." Both turned to see the man in question suddenly at the edge of the crater.

"I am far superior to the Ancients, I became a traveler of the Lifestream and gained the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients. I also gained the knowledge and wisdom of those after the extinction of the Ancients." He slowly floated off the ground, hovering over the crater. "I will create the future."

"I won't let you do it; the future is not only yours!" Aeris shouted at Sephiroth. The entire gang was surrounding the hole now ready to attack.

"Hmmm I wonder..." Both he and Cloud stared at each other until Sephiroth muttered.

"Wake up." Suddenly a burst caused the team above ground to get shot in different directions. Cloud suddenly felt the same pain he did in the temple and fell to the ground. The pain in his head was throbbing and killing him. Everything around him felt like it was frozen. He saw Aeris trying to warn him but she was silent and moving so slow.

"Shut up!" He couldn't stop hearing a ring in his ear, it made him want to tear himself apart. "The noise..." He said through clenched teeth. He was on the ground smashing his head. Trying to ignore the pain but it just wouldn't go away

"There Cloud...good boy." Sephiroth held out his hand. "Come...give me the Black Materia." Cloud slowly got up but now he felt conflicted. He had to give him the materia so the pain would stop. Sephiroth would make everything better, that's how it worked. He started to walk.

_**No!**_

He couldn't have kept it away from him forever, Sephiroth would have gotten it anyway, why not give it to him now? He felt so scared, what would happen if Sephiroth kept giving him the pain? He needed to get rid of the materia.

_**Don't be afraid!**_

It will all end soon and he'll feel better, Sephiroth is right.

_**Don't listen!**_

Why did he fight all this time? Sephiroth was destined to win. It was inevitable.

_**Fight it off!**_

Sephiroth had always been right, why hadn't he seen it before?

_**Please don't do it!**_

Sephiroth wants the materia, Cloud must give it to him.

_**NO!**_

"Well done Cloud." Sephiroth laughed. Everything fell perfectly into place. He flew off and his illusion fell. Everyone was back to normal. Aeris noted that Sephiroth was here one second and gone the next. Now Cloud was staring off into space.

"Cloud... are you alright?"

"I gave the Black Materia... to Sephiroth?" Aeris was mortified at the words. Cloud turned and fell onto his knees, almost sobbing at what he did.

"What...what did I do...Aeris...tell me..." He was clenching the dirt in his hands; a completely lost and fearful look replacing his normal facade. Aeris was worried. The temple was wary of Cloud. She had heard many things from the disembodied voices of the Ancients, but they all were fearful of Cloud. Because they all said he had the same blood as Sephiroth. That's why she didn't pester how he acted in the temple. If she could keep him strong he could beat this. She knelt down next to him.

"Cloud... be strong. Okay?" The words only served to make him less stable. He yelled at the top of his lungs, he stood clenching his head as if he were in pain.

"UURRRRRAGHHHHHH! WHAT HAVE I DONE?" She held onto his shoulders, trying to calm him.

Cloud...you haven't done anything." She was more worried than ever, her words didn't seem to get through to him. "It's not your fault." Suddenly he looked at her; she finally saw the crazed look in his eyes. They looked just like Sephiroth's.

He jumped at her and started to attack. She was so afraid. Cloud was completely different from before. This wasn't supposed to happen. She felt his fists impact and held her arms up in defense. Cloud was going berserk and trying to kill her with his bare fists. It felt like forever but finally she heard a friendly voice after Cloud was suddenly thrown off.

"Get him, hold him down! Put him to sleep, just help!"

(nrml POV)

I was ready the instant he appeared. I had Fusion in position to kill. I was more than ready to attack Sephiroth with only magic if it meant I could prevent him from getting the materia. But I never counted on one thing.

His illusions.

Somehow he had the abilities to warp time and space for AVALANCHE. He froze everyone. I didn't even notice it until I realized he flew away. I couldn't believe it; he had just stopped everyone in place and took the materia. How could he have that kind of power? I knew he was deadly, but to stop me in my tracks before I even think of my move...

"UURRRRRAGHHHHHH! WHAT HAVE I DONE?" I snapped out of it and saw Cloud in an even worse state than he was in the temple. He was going insane. I wasn't able to do anything to prevent it. Sephiroth got the materia.

Suddenly he started attacking Aeris. I couldn't think about my failures now, I can make them up. Aeris needed help!

"Woh, looks like I came at a bad time." I turned to see the same cat and mog that sacrificed himself in the temple. "Hi I'm Cait Sith No-"

"CAN THE SHIT Reeve! Get down there now and help Aeris!" I jumped down and kicked Cloud off Aeris, soon Barret and Tifa came down only for him to focus on them. Nanaki jumped and knocked him back. Vincent got him in a sleeper hold but he hit him in the side and escaped. Barret tackled him and held onto his arms, Cid came up and held one of his legs while Yuffie got the other. But he was still struggling.

"Get him, hold him down! Put him to sleep, just help!" I yelled. Finally Nanaki used a Sleep spell to calm him down. I ran over to Aeris and searched her over. She looked really beat up, that SOLDIER strength was too much for her. I took her Restore and started healing her the best I could. She was unconscious when I was done. The beating took too much out of her.

"What do we do?" Tifa sounded more concerned than she had in her life.

"We go to the nearest town, Gongaga. We let them heal and then we talk about it." I said coldly. I picked up Aeris and started to head for the Tiny Bronco's direction. Everyone else followed behind me with Barret carrying Cloud.

God why did this have to happen? Why didn't I think of this?...it's okay...We just need to let them both rest. Maybe I can get Aeris to stay with us and lead us to the Sleeping Forest. She doesn't need to sacrifice herself, I know she doesn't...she's too important to die now.

I can't let her be the hero like this...she can do it when we all fight Sephiroth...together.


	27. Chapter 27

A/N. Another chapter down and a few quick announcements audience. One, While you are reading this I will have or am in the process of changing ch 1 of the story as well as revising the beginning chapters since I realize I didn't lay a good foundation on this. Two, this is a wordy chapter, and three...actually i can't think of a third so that is the end. Enjoy the chapter and next week will be something to see.

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><p><strong>Ch 27<strong>

**ATE**

This was quickly getting out of hand. Rufus was in his office but he wasn't sitting comfortably in his chair, he was pacing back and forth in thought. Everything seemed to go according to plan when he sent Tseng after Sephiroth. But now not only did he have the Turk leader recovering, but Sephiroth somehow gained a very destructive power. He almost couldn't believe it until he got confirmation from both Tseng and Reeve...yes Reeve. That had escalated out of control as well. He came to his office personally to give him the report. It was unusual since he stopped doing it after the first few. What Rufus read disturbed him.

The first was the fact that Sephiroth's goal and power was to injure the Planet! A feat that only Shinra's Mako reactors had made even a small dent in. Then came the information that Sephiroth already knew where the Promised Land was. The former general somehow eluded both Shinra and AVALANCHE long enough to find it and return without notice. The rest of the board was going to have a fit when that information was spread. But when he read the rest of the report, he had to confirm with Reeve that is was accurate.

Somehow one of their members knew exactly who Cait Sith was controlled by, and if it had to be anyone, it was River, AVALANCHE's ghost. He couldn't hold the frustration in him any longer and tore the paper in front of the Urban Development head. Every time they would search for information on the man, they came up with nothing. He never existed anywhere at any time. The only conclusive thing that could help them would be a blood sample and they couldn't charge after them now since their destination was unknown according to Reeve. In fact, he noticed a small change in attitude with Reeve. Even before this report he seemed to have become more withdrawn in his machine's state. The reports would get just a little bit vaguer on details and he even once noted how interesting it was they were doing all of this for nothing, but Rufus never paid attention to it. Now...perhaps Reeve knew about River's knowledge and wasn't trying to make any miscalculated steps.

But knowing Reeve, Nathan admitted that he had more information than let on in the group. The backlash could be catastrophic; did he know any of their secrets? Had informants in the headquarters? Had he told the rest of his team? He most likely knew Reeve was a spy the minute they met, yet still treated him on a friendly basis. Rufus finally stopped walking and went to his phone. They gave AVALANCHE a very wide berth, but now there were too many variables to account for.

"Yo, this is Reno." With Tseng incapacitated Reno was now de facto leader of the Turks, hopefully he still held some grudge against the freedom fighters.

"Its Rufus...I need you to place an order to capture AVALANCHE at anytime they are met."

"Finally got too far up our asses huh? I'll send it out. Anything else yo?"

"I want a small amendment to that order."

"And...?"

"I want troops sent to any town or location that is related to Nathan River. I want them to do sweeps for any last bit of information regarding Shinra, or otherwise now that he has been found to hold information only I and the board knew of." There was a little hesitation before an answer.

"Done, anything else?"

"For River...I want him marked as holding classified information, he is now number one for imprisonment and interrogation above the rest of AVALANCHE."

* * *

><p>Tifa had been wandering around the forests of Gongaga to make sure any Shinra soldiers weren't going to surprise them. But her mind wasn't completely on the task at hand. She was worried; the entire group was on edge after the temple incident. Tifa couldn't believe Cloud had hurt Aeris so much and would even go on to attack everyone else. The ride two days ago to the village was horribly quiet; everyone was left to their own thoughts. It hurt, but she admitted Aeris was one of the main reasons to keep the group together. She always could pinpoint how a person felt and would consul them.<p>

With her out, the entire group seemed distant to each other. Barret watched over Cloud like a hawk, Nanaki had the same job as Tifa along with Cid, and Yuffie just seemed to wonder around. The ones Tifa worried about the most where Vincent , Cait, and Nathan. For some reason they were especially avoiding people. Whenever she would talk to Cait, he would always stammer an excuse and run off. When she was with Vincent, he would only pay attention to Aeris's hut. And Nathan…

For some reason he was especially distraught. He almost never left Aeris's side at the hut they were keeping her in. When he did, he would just go to Cloud's and keep the same serious watch on him. Tifa once went in thinking he blamed himself and told him no one could have seen it coming. That only served to depress him more so she left, one of the nights she was here she woke up to make a patrol only to see him still keeping an eye on them both. He said he had to be up when either of them woke up because he had a bad feeling; Tifa trusted him and left him to his business. She sighed, thinking like this only made the whole thing worse. She decided to talk to the others so that she could get out of her own rut. She went back into the village and found everyone in their usual routine. Red walked up to her.

"Anything?" He asked, she shook her head.

"I guess Cait hasn't called anyone in. He really does want to change."

"How are you?" The feline asked.

"I know I've been better, everyone has. It's just now it's to gloomy in our group." Red nodded and looked around the village. His eyes narrowed on the former Turk looking at the huts.

"I haven't seen him sleep for the last few days." Tifa looked at Vincent as well and agreed. He was worse than Nathan when it came to sleep.

"Maybe you should talk to everyone else. I'll go back and talk to Nathan." She smiled and thanked Red. For some reason he was the one that Nathan enjoyed visits from the most. He would perk up at the sight of Red. Maybe it was because he was the only on that called him by his real name. The rest of the group had gotten so used to his alias that they used it without second thoughts. Nathan was the only one who jumped to Red's real name. She walked over to Vincent and sat next to him. It would be hard but she could possibly coax a few words out of him.

"How is everything?" He shifted uncomfortably.

"Fine." She sighed.

"They are both going to be okay, just wait and see."

"I'm not worried about them." She raised an eyebrow.

"Then what have you been watching the huts for?"

"Suspicious activities." Now she was confused.

"Why would you do that?" It seemed to be forever before she got an answer.

"How much do you think that there is another spy in the group?" That completely caught her off guard.

"Well Cait was one...I can't think of anyone else who could be a spy...wait...who do you suspect?"

"River," was his only reply. She almost jumped when she heard that someone thought Nate was a spy, which was absurd.

"How could you possibly think that?"

"Have you ever noticed his luck?" Her tantrum calmed down at the odd question. Vincent took it as a sign to continue.

"Have you noticed he has inexplicably helped the group in many ways that would only point to an unusual amount of luck?" She shook her head; she didn't know where he was going.

"The time he got the group to that weapons collector, him making the clock move by asking what time it was for no reason..."

"That's just it, luck." She reasoned.

"And his behavior."

"What about it?" She was hesitant to ask, but her friend's character was at stake.

"He acts as if everything will be alright...in a situation like this it could be brushed off. But he also is too accepting for a normal person. He always seems coordinated in battles even if he is surprised. He also often sits and thinks for long periods of time as if planning."

"You can't possibly be accusing him on all of that?" She asked. He looked her in the eyes and she felt a chill go down her spine.

"Unlike the rest of you he immediately accepted me being a monster. A normal person like yourself would always be afraid... he has experience with traumatic events."

"He's been through a lot since he joined." She reasoned.

"How did he join you?"

"I met him at the train station in Midgar, he had gone up and helped Cloud. I took them both to our headquarters and he was more or less... dragged in." Vincent's eyes narrowed.

"Where did he say he was from? What he was doing?" The question seemed more serious than the last few. Why would he question Nathan so much? He was one of the most trusted in the whole group, almost as much as Aeris.

"He said he was looking for employment and was from Mideel."

"Did he have an accent?"

"What do you mean?"

"Mountain and island villages away from Midgar usually have people with accents, even your village people did. Did he have one?" That made Tifa think. It was true if you didn't live in Midgar you often would sound just a little bit different. It was the same for her when she first appeared.

"No he didn't...but that doesn't mean anything."

"Then why would he call the cat a different name?"

"What are you-"

"Everyone!" Both stopped to look at a wide eyed Red.

"Nathan and Aeris are missing!" The entire group heard and ran up to Nanaki. Hoping to find out what happened.

(An hour earlier.)

I knew I was overreacting; Aeris and Cloud would make full recoveries. But I had to keep an eye on them both to make sure everything went right. Aeris would ditch the team at an unknown point and go to the City of Ancients… everyone else would follow, and being too slow everyone would witness Aeris die at Sephiroth's hands.

That was not going to happen. Even if I had to beg and plead, Aeris won't leave without taking everyone else in the group with her. We could repel Sephiroth if he tried to strike, or even get rid of him. We all might be strong enough since it wasn't his real body.

"God I wish I had my music. Two days of this without anything to keep me up sucks."

"Damn, your paranoid ass is still in here?" I chuckled, Barret had come to visit.

"I'm just keeping an eye on our teammates."

"More like breathing down their necks, I've at least slept. You're going insane." I sighed.

"I'm making sure we don't lose anyone Barret." He walked in and leaned against the wall.

"I know, I've been doin the same." He admitted. I smiled; Barret was really just a giant teddy bear at heart.

"Shit just keeps going doesn't it?" He said, I nodded.

"Yeah, but you really don't notice until someone close to you is hit." He rose and eyebrow and smirked.

"Oh so you took Aeris out." I jumped.

"God NO! I would never...just...it wasn't..." He started laughing hard. "Barret!"

"That's what you get for riling me up all those times, maybe you'll think twice now." I sat back down shaking my head.

"I'll get back at you Barret."

"Not unless you don't want me to bag on you diggin on the hyperactive little thief we have." Damn it all this was to point out which girl I took out, I should have seen this from day one.

"You can't judge."

"I can judge your odd taste." I flipped him off but smiled.

"I remember my auntie telling me if I ever did get a girl she should keep me on my toes, who better than a thief?" Then again, I remember she told me to never get a girlfriend unless I can take the drama...Come to think of it I should take Yuffie out on another date sometime, get her to open up more.

"Whatever, I just assumed Aeris since you are always being nicest to her and acted like she was all you cared for." I scoffed.

"You are just full a shit sometimes Barret, I swear." He chuckled and looked back at Aeris.

"You do care for her though."

"I care about everyone here. You're all almost like family to me." Being with them this long, learning their quarks, pasts, attitudes. I made deeper bonds with fictional characters that came to life before my eyes more than my friends back home.

"You have some messed up sense of family."

"Oh come on Barret, everyone has their family role here." He rolled his eyes.

"Sure Nate."

"Nah I'm serious. Look at Tifa, she's the den mother of the group, always worrying about everyone and making sure we're okay and nagging about our health."

"You'd get another slap on you head if she heard that." Barret interjected but I continued.

"Cid's the angry but funny grandpa, Nanaki's the trusted pet, Cait's the oddball, Vincent's the black sheep, Yuffie's the childish one, Cloud's not really a father figure, but he holds himself high and we all follow in line..."

"And yours truly?" I waved my hand.

"You're like that grizzly uncle that's always in jail." That earned me a punch to the shoulder but I heard the small chuckled and saw him point to Aeris.

"Aeris...is the big sister of the group. Always able to point out your problems and help you, always sympathizing, always caring and doing whatever she could to make things easier for everyone else." She really kept to that image too.

"What about you? What do you think you are in this whole family?" I sat back and thought. Sure I was close to everyone, but even though our friendships ran deep I couldn't stop shaking the feeling I was just a participating observer. I guess knowledge of everyone beforehand of their pasts, presents, and futures dulled out that feeling. Plus I don't think I could describe what role I would take.

"Actually I don't think I could describe a role for myself that well. I don't fit with the whole group dynamic, you know?"

"Bullshit, you are always caring about others business and staying out of it when you knew we wanted to be alone. You comfort anyone new in some way. You try to help like Aeris, you're childish, but you act mature. You're just like a big bowl of the whole group just mixed together." I laughed at another one of Barret's bad analogies. "Hey I'm being serious!" I calmed myself down and got up.

"Thanks Barret, I needed that. Go check up on Cloud, I'm going to get some food." I left the hut and went to the item shop. Inside I found there wasn't much, I decided to by some lunch meat and water, on one of the nights I stayed up to make sure Aeris didn't run away Tifa found me and berated me for using my candy and sodas to keep me up, saying it would ruin my health along with the lack of sleep. I swear if she wasn't the den mother I don't know what else she fit. I walked out of the item shop and took a good look around the ruined town since I was unconscious last time.

Many of the villagers looked depressed, as well as they should be from what happened with the reactor. Others were just trying to live their lives the best they could, some looked serious, others had smiles on their faces. I saddened me a little but it isn't like I was placed in Before Crisis and could have stopped the original AVALANCHE. Even if I was, I don't know how much I could have changed...it could have been less than what I'm doing now or more. If I was sent that far I could have tried out for some Shinra program and just use a pseudonym and fake history like I did here, I don't think they would care about some grunt's history, I could have befriended Cloud at a higher rank, investigated Sephiroth along with Angeal and Genesis. I could have even become friends with Zack.

The thought of the overly happy SOLDIER reminds me that this was his hometown...in fact; he never got to tell his parents about where he was for all those years. In the game no one ever returned to clarify anything to them...until now. I started walking to the run down home that had a small sign on top of the door that said "Fair". I was about to knock when my breath hitched and I froze. I was about to inform them of their son's death. I was never put into this position back home... Jesus this won't go well. But if I don't it will just be a loose end that bugs me until the end, Zack's parents not knowing for who knows how long that Zack was gone. Its better they are told now so everything can be smooth in the future. I knock on the door and it's opened to reveal a man who looked to be in his fifties with a full head of gray hair and multiple crow's feet.

"Yes?" I composed myself and tried to sound professional.

"Are you Zachary Fair's father?" His eyes suddenly light up.

"Yes, did you know Zack?" I nodded.

"I actually came to talk to you about him."

"Please come in, honey this man knows Zack!" I look over and saw a woman who looked younger than the man, possibly her mid forties. She had black hair but it was starting to dull with age, she had a green bow on it and had a very kind smile when I walked in.

"That's great, please sit down. Would you like something to drink or eat?" I rubbed the back of my head and declined.

"No thanks. I'm just here to tell you how he is." Both sat down across from me and I pulled a stool over to sit on. Both parents looked hopeful.

"How is Zack? Has he been safe? What's has he been doing for all these years?" Both started asking questions. I gulped.

"I'm sorry but... Zachary has been dead for the last month." The looks in their eyes made me feel horrible. Dropping the bomb on them just twisted my gut worse than any battle thus far. Zack's mother had a few tears until her husband calmed her down even though he was in the same state. It took a while but both were in a better mood to talk.

"We had...suspected this. But we always hoped he was still alive." His father said.

"What did he do all these years? Did he make it as a SOLDIER First Class?" His mother asked.

"Yes, he was promoted and became First Class before he died. He was one of the finest examples of SOLDIER that had ever lived. Both of you should be proud of your son." The smiles on their faces made me feel a little easier.

"How good was he as a SOLDIER?" His mother asked. I don't know for how long but I told them about his life in Shinra, although in different contexts than the game. How he helped in the Wutaian War and him being tutored by Angeal about never forgetting his honor and dreams. Of his missions that helped save Midgar and his contributions. I even mentioned Aeris being his girlfriend. Both had such pleasant looking faces listening to the stories I edited. When they asked how he died I said he protected his friend from numerous enemies, taking on damn near an army. It wasn't a lie, he protected Cloud by taking on the entire Shinra army, I remember one play through I had him leveled so high it took forever before the fight finished. Both of Zack's parents looked so proud that in the end he became the hero he always dreamed to be.

"He always dreamed big." His mother said. I agreed.

"Impossible dreams are often the best, so that you can prove to everyone else that you could achieve it."

"You knew Zachary pretty well then." I shrugged.

"I did know him inside out." Kind of eerie when I think about it though.

"Thank you...it's good to finally calm down. Knowing he did so much makes it easier." Zack's dad offered me his hand. I took it in for a firm handshake.

"Just doing the right thing Mr. Fair."

"Please call me Locke, my wife's is Hilda. We hope to hear more about our son's adventures. Please come back sometime, you're more than welcome." Locke and Hilda? Where have I heard those names before?... Meh I'll remember some other time. It was a more pleasing experience to talk to them then I thought, no wonder Cissnei liked them. Now I don't have to worry about what they'll feel in the future. I exit the hut and look around. Vincent hasn't gotten back from his brooding yet, Tifa and Nanaki are still on patrol...and Cait...

Dear god I fucked up on that end. Why did I have to spout who he was controlled by? I should have kept a calmer head than what I had; now I had potentially blown my cover naming him. I am an idiot. I think the biggest problem is the fact he hasn't done anything about it. Cait's avoided the group for the last couple of days and I can't help but think bad things are coming. He still does tasks he's asked but I've completely stopped talking to him mostly out of fear of what would follow. Not to mention if anyone else heard. How could I possibly fix this?

I was torn from my thoughts when I approached Aeris's hut and saw a small flash of pink in the forest before it disappeared.

"No...damn it!" I started booking it. If I didn't think so much I would have been with her when she woke up, damn it she's fast. I kept dodging trees as I slowly caught up, Aeris was heading north, towards the northern continent but how would she get there? She didn't take the Bronco so what would she do?

"Aeris wait!" She stopped in her tracks and turned. I was breathing heavily but calmed down. When she saw me she smiled.

"Hey Nathan, you don't look like you've been sleeping again." I chuckled. She tries to run away and acts the same way she does before she's caught.

"I can sleep later, Aeris what are you doing? Everyone's going to be worried when they find out you ran." She paced a little but kept her smile.

"Nathan...I want you to leave Sephiroth to me."

"Now why would I do that?"

"I'm the only on that can stop him, I need to do this Nathan."

"What you need to do is let everyone help you Aeris, you shouldn't do this on your own. I know you're protecting Cloud from a breakdown but going on a suicide mission won't help." She laughed a little before looking me in the eyes.

"You always seemed to know what people are thinking Nathan. I remember Tifa asking me how I could do that. How do you?" I took a step closer. She kept still, that was a good sign.

"Aeris I know how everyone thinks, it's a...gift I have. Now I know how you feel, but we can take Sephiroth together. Just because you're an Ancient doesn't mean you have to shoulder this alone."

"Nathan...I know you mean well. You know I still remember the day I met you and Cloud. I could always tell you were different from everyone else, but I could never put my finger on it...but traveling with you and everyone else...I think you can really help them while I take care of Sephiroth."

"That isn't the point Aeris. You can help everyone more than I can. It's how things work out." She giggled.

"Tell me Nathan. Why did you join Cloud and the others? You said you wanted to protect someone. But why go through all of this?" Her question makes me think for a moment. Sure I was transported here. I never had any real reason to follow the plot line. But I remember how everyone reacted to their experiences in the game. Barret killing his best friend Dyne; Nanaki realizing who his father really was; Cait sacrificing himself; Aeris dying. It was so hard to imagine those events now when you could see the emotion that they all felt.

"If I have the power to make a difference, why not put it to good use?" I answered. She seemed pleased by the answer.

"Nathan...what is your dream, what do you want to achieve more than anything else in your life?" Another odd question. But it makes me think back to before all of this. I remember how I always wanted to have an adventure like the video games. To travel unknown lands with enigmatic comrades and defeat the bad guy in the end. I always wanted to be in that situation so I could be recognized like those characters, a hard life but one really worth living.

"I guess...I want to experience adventure, to meet people I could find to be my family that aren't my blood... have a chance to show how unselfish and good I could be at something. To become a hero in the end." She shook her head. A same sad smile was on her face.

"So different, yet you're like my first boyfriend. He had a similar dream. He just wanted to be a hero though. You want to experience so much and help everyone. That's why you'll do so much Nathan. I can at least do this; I'll be back when it's over." I felt a ping in my heart when she described Zack. She turned again but I ran around to stop her.

"Aeris...please, as much as I like being with everyone else and helping them, the possibility of you dying is too much. Losing you would devastate them, Cloud would never be the same; hell, everyone would change. I won't let you do something that could kill you." Aeris sighed.

"I'm the last of the Cetra Nathan, I'm the only one who can stop Meteor."

"Nanaki is the last of whatever his race is, Vincent can transform into monsters, Cloud's a SOLDIER First, Cait's an independent robot, Barret and Tifa are the last of AVALANCHE, and I have a large amount of magic abilities. You're special Aeris, just like everyone else so we will help you." She looked at the ground for a minute before looking up.

"You won't let me go?" I shook my head. I looked at the defeated look on her face.

"Maybe...you guys can help me. But I don't know what will happen." She had a very sad look on her face. I walked up and put my hand on her shoulder.

"Aeris it will be fine. Everything will work out, I promise." I took her hand and started walking back towards the village.

"I'm really sorry Nathan" I heard her say.

"Don't be, I won't tell anyone you were gone."

"I really am." Suddenly I heard a large cracking noise. I turned but realized I was falling and the sudden intense throbbing of pain spread through me. I looked back to see Aeris with her staff in hand. I landed with a thud, I couldn't groan. My vision was getting spotty and she turned away. I wanted to get up and stop her but my body wouldn't respond. All I could do was watch her leave. I wanted to yell for everyone but my brain finally shut down and I was out.

I few minutes later I groaned. The pain was in full effect now and I sprang up.

"Aeris!"

"Nathan lay down, you're injured." I turned to see I was in the same bed as Aeris with Nanaki and Tifa at my side. I held my head as my blood rushed, the influx of pain along with it.

"It was a nasty hit, what happened?" Nanaki asked.

"Aeris ran away." The surprised reactions were expected.

"Why would she do that!" Tifa asked.

"She says she's the only one that could beat Sephiroth since she's the last Cetra. I tried convincing her we could help but she was too damn stubborn."

"Where was she going?" Nanaki asked this time. I groaned.

"She never said, she was running north but I don't know what she was going on." The half lie slid easily of my tongue.

"Cloud hasn't even woken up yet. How will he handle this?" Tifa started walking around. She was worried obviously.

"When he wakes up we're going to look for Aeris. I still need rest. I can see it's almost night outside, both of you get some too." Nanaki nodded and walked out. Tifa seemed to stare at me for a bit before I sat back up.

"What's wrong?" I asked. She looked...afraid to ask her question before she got enough resolve.

"Nathan...you would never betray us would you?"

"What? No! I would never think of doing that!" What would make her think that?.. .is this about what I called Cait?

"No Nathan I just wanted to make sure. After Cait I've been having...doubts about everyone." That is clearly a lie, she doesn't sound unsure about anyone else...did she really hear me call out Reeve?

"Tifa you can tell me what you're really thinking." I blurted out. I didn't want to explain to her about Reeve, I just wanted the problem to go away, I wasn't one hundred percent sure she knew so I worded myself carefully. Tifa waved her hand and smiled.

"Don't worry Nathan, I know you're a good person." She gets up walks away leaving me to think about what she meant. She didn't persist...so she didn't hear...but why would she ask...

Cait...he must have slipped about me somehow and Tifa suspected me. Damn it this is only going to escalate in the future but what am I to do?... reveal myself? That's a definite possibility since Nanaki found out... it would have to come out eventually if I found a way home. But if I stayed it would cause even more problems in the future. So no matter what I would have to reveal myself to everyone at some point. God, everything's getting more complicated! I shook my head.

First things first, make sure Aeris survives no matter what! Then what else... the Northern Crater. Cloud gives someone the Black Materia to keep so nothing bad happens. I remember Sephiroth discards his fake body for his real one... I'll volunteer for the materia. I know the Tifa illusion and Sephiroth can't hurt me with those. What do I do with it? Throw it in the life stream?... no that would only delay everything. Sephiroth already traveled through the Lifestream with little effort so it would be trivial for him to get the materia if it's in there. Destroy it? No, materia is basically as hard as diamond with the abuse they take...

I clench my head as more pain runs through. I can't think with a headache like this. I need my rest... I'll make a decent plan of action tomorrow... I'll make sure everyone is happy if it's the last thing I do.

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><p>Props next chapter to anyone who can guess where I got the names for Zacks parents<p> 


	28. Chapter 28

A/N alright everyone I actually have a few announcements to say. I wanted to post this story yesterday which happened to be my birthday since i really like how this chapter went, however due to circumstances i had to settle for the regular dead line, oh well. next off to Zeetthegreat who gave me a technique to use in the future, second is the redone chapters at the start. They may be slow on updates because there are times the system is dumb and i have to manually space every sentence. Also I would like to note The Duelist of Dawn commented on my fic who created the Melodies of Life Chronicles, one of the first decent insert stories I happened to stumble upon, I highly recommend his story. Also i will be attempting, at the request of one reviewer more 3rd pov viewpoints. I just need reminders every now and again. Also i will not split this story like how the discs are split so the entire story will be told in this fic. SO now we're at the end of the first disc guys. What will happen now? You'll only know if you continue reading.

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><p>Ch 28<p>

It took a full day of rest and a few cure spells before I was allowed to walk around. Tifa wasn't pestering me about anything, so I guess she was just genuinely worried about me and how the team was on edge. Cait seemed to be talking a little bit with the group but he hadn't approached me. Vincent is his normal self, but I can't stop feeling like something's off with him. I can never tell since his face rarely changes. Nanaki has been trying to ask me why Aeris would believe she could take Sephiroth alone, I explained since she is the last true Cetra, she believed she could. We were still sent out in teams to check the edges of the forest, but there wasn't a trace of her.

"Nate, Cloud's waking up!" I heard Barret yell. I went inside the hut looking at Cloud who was covered in sweat. I almost forgot about his nightmare.

"Bad dreams huh?" He shook his head.

"I'll be fine." He looked around. "Where's everyone else?"

"They're out searching." I said bluntly.

"What? For who?" He sat up.

"Aeris is gone Cloud." Tifa said. Cloud didn't even flinch.

"The City of Ancients. Aeris is headed there." Both Tifa's and Barret's eyes grew.

"By herself? Why did she go by herself? We're going too!"

"Only the Ancients, only she can save us from Meteor..." He mumbled.

"Then we must go. What will we do if something happens to Aeris? If Sephiroth finds her she'll be in trouble."

"Sephiroth...already knows." He seemed to sound worse and worse each sentence.

"Then why are we sitting around? Let's go!" Barret yelled. Tifa agreed and I nodded. Cloud just looked away.

"No. I might lose it again. If Sephiroth comes near me I might..." Barret interrupted.

"Yeah god damn it, its cuz of you Sephiroth has the Black Materia now. It's your damn fault."

"My fault..." That did not help Cloud's self esteem in any way possible Barret.

"Listen I know you got problems, hell we all do. But you don't even understand yourself. You've got to understand that there ain't no way we're getting off this train until the end of the line." Cloud seemed to mull over Barret's words.

"Cloud we came this far. Aren't you going to settle this with Sephiroth?" Tifa added.

"No... if I keep this up I may go crazy...I'm afraid." He was holding his head. He had the most fearful look on his face that I had seen. He really believed he would only be a hindrance.

"Just a damn jackass is what you are. Just think about it Cloud. How many people really know themselves? People get depressed in life because they don't know what's up. But they go on living. They don't run away. Isn't that how it is?" Barret walked out after his speech.

"Cloud you'll come with us, right? I still believe in you." Tifa walked out next. Cloud just seemed to shake his head in more frustration.

"Everyone is afraid of something Cloud. No matter how much you hide it, your fears will catch up to you. It takes true courage to face those fears in front of others. But Cloud, you've seen what happens to me when I'm at the edge of my life and I snap. I still travel with you guys, I'm still afraid it could happen at random, but I still hope for the best. That's what you should do." Saying my piece, I walked out. Barret and Tifa were both standing near the door. I waited along with them. It took some time but the blond headed hero soon walked out.

"Cloud..." Tifa said.

"You alright? I just want to know, you wanna find out about yourself. Or are you afraid to find out? Either way you stay here, and all you can really do is worry about it. Even if you go nuts again when you see Sephiroth... if it happens, it happens. I'll slap you upside your spiky head to change you back."

"Cloud, it's okay, we're all with you," Tifa added to Barrets rant.

"You're right...he's right isn't he?" He turned to Tifa. She nodded.

"Come on, let's go find Aeris." Barret and I went to get everyone else. He explained to everyone else about Aeris going to the City of Ancients.

"How do you know this?" Vincent questioned.

"She told me while I was...sleeping, but I don't know where to find the city." Cloud said with little confidence.

"You said somewhere near the Sleeping Forest correct?" Nanaki asked. Cloud nodded.

"Grandpa told me about it. It is a famous landmark on the Northern Continent; it's near an excavation camp called Bone Village."

"How the fuck can she cross the sea without the Bronco?" Cid argued.

"Sephiroth finds ways; it might not be hard for Aeris if she was determined enough." Cait adds.

"Whatever, that's where she's going so let's get there first." Yuffie says, which I agreed with.

"Then let's go now." Cloud ordered. We left Gongaga and set off to the coast. We all got on the plane and started for the Northern Continent. Cid said that it would take at least a day considering the fact we would have to sail around one continent to get to another. Almost everyone was in an uproar about that until Tifa calmed everyone, explaining that since we had the Tiny Bronco we would arrive first since it would be near impossible for Aeris to beat us. I know Tifa had the logic behind it, but somehow Aeris would always get there first. She'd be in the city's temple praying to her White Materia and the gang would arrive at the instant she is killed.

Lucky for me I had a game plan. I don't have the strength to fight Sephiroth, dear god eleven out of ten times I would lose that fight. But magic based I have a large amount of magic energy and some near mastered lightning and fire materia. When everyone gets to Bone Village I'll wait until the middle of the night, play the harp, then run in before anyone can notice me. I'll head straight to the temple and look after Aeris until Sephiroth appears. I'll then unload as much magic as I possibly could to knock Sephiroth back while he's concentrated on her. By that time everyone else would arrive and help fight either him or the next Jenova boss off. The plan was almost foolproof, I had an outline to follow, and it was open enough to improvise when needed. I actually believe I can do this.

"Nathan." I look over on my side of the wing and see Nanaki sitting next to me.

"What is it?" His eye settled on me. The glare he had gave me chills.

"You knew she was going to leave. You knew she would try to stop Sephiroth on her own. You knew she would die soon..."

"And you're asking why I didn't prevent it." I looked around. No one was really close enough to hear our conversation if we kept it low. He nodded.

"I did try Nanaki. I tried to convince her to let us help her. But Aeris is stubborn, she's subtle about it but she is. She got the idea she could stop him and she believed it...and truthfully...I do too."

"But how?"

"Did she ever show you her special materia?" He shook his head. She never did mention it to anyone else but Cloud in the story back at the church.

"She has the White Materia. It is capable of summoning the power of Holy." His eye widened.

"Holy? The legendary power Holy?"

"So you know about it?" I asked.

"I only know because of Cosmo Canyon's research. On topics with Mako there was a theory of a power able to call the Lifestream itself to protect the Planet." I nodded.

"That is the White Materia, a counter measure for the Black Materia."

"Doesn't she need massive amounts of spirit energy to call upon it?" Another nod.

"That's why she went to the city. The souls of the Ancients still inhabit the place. It's essentially sacred grounds. She wants to pray there so she has the best chance at stopping Meteor." He seemed to contemplate my words before answering.

"I can understand why she went now. It makes sense she would put herself in harm's way for a chance to stop Sephiroth from getting any further ahead of us... But does she have to die Nathan?"

"I don't believe she has to. I don't even think she knew she was going to die. The only people that know about Sephiroth's and Cloud's connections are Seph himself, Hojo, and the two of us." No one else should know about Jenova's ability to transfer information between cells not in the same body. Thank god I don't have any in me. This whole trip would have been a disaster if Jenova had future knowledge.

"How are you going to stop it?" He asked.

"I need you to stay behind with the group when I leave. Like I told you before, I can only assume how everything will work if I do this. Any extras will only cause problems. You guys won't be far behind though. Also, I need you to mediate how everyone reacts when I'm gone."

"You think they'll react that badly?"

"A little, they already had one friend run off, how do you think they'll take to having another suddenly disappear." He understood and inclined his head.

"I also need you to check everyone's reactions when I'm out." He had an odd look on his face before I explained.

"You know how I reacted when I shouted at Cait."

"You called him a different name." I was surprised when he said that. "I have better hearing than humans; that was very reckless by the way."

"Yeah I know, that's why I need you for damage control. If anyone acts funny, I need you to tell me when you all get me."

"You think someone heard you." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Tifa was acting a little weird yesterday, she asked if I would betray the team to put it bluntly, and I can't shake the feeling she either heard or someone mentioned it to her. Can you do all of that for me?"

"I can. But I have a bad feeling Nathan. I keep expecting the worst to happen. I value all of you, each of you are the first friends I could cherish. If any of you die it would break my heart." I was silent for a while before I started scratching his ear, he didn't move away.

"It's the same for me Nanaki, that's why I'm going to do as much as I can to prevent this." I got up. "I'm going to see how the rest of the group is doing." I looked around the plane and saw the different looks of depression on everyone's face. Even people like Tifa, who kept a smile on still had a telling look. Dear god, and this is only when Aeris left. I decided to sit next to Cid who was driving. It started getting late now, the sun was already past the horizon and I could see a star here and there in the sky.

"Hey old man, how you holding up?"

"Just dandy, how's that injury you got from that girl?" I could tell he was insulting me. It made my day just a little lighter.

"She bashed my head in with a pole Cid, a lot of people would get knocked out from that."

"Real mans hard headed enough to take it." We both got a good laugh out of that. "What do you want kid, we ain't anywhere close yet. It will probably be noon, hell even evening by the time we get to the north continent." God that is a long time to be stuck on a plane. If there's one thing I miss, it's the travel time in the game. What did it take? Ten seconds, maybe fifteen to get from Gongaga to Bone Village? Now it takes near two days to travel. I can't wait to ride the Highwind, everything's going to be easy after that.

"So why are you bugging me?" He asked.

"Haven't talked to you in a while. Plain and simple as that."

"You know you don't have to know everybody's business, Darkness and that brute only talk when they want... but that lug head sure talks a shit load when he wants. It's a godsend when he finally shuts up." I knew the second person Cid was talking about was Barret, but Darkness was a new one for me.

"Darkness?"

"That Vincent guy. Always sittin around by himself and saying two words a day. Fucker creeps me out but damn he can fight." Oh that makes sense.

"Hey Cid, tell me what the Highwind was like, you built it right?" I need something to pass the time. I'm sure Cid will more than oblige.

"Don't even get me started. The Highwind is the pinnacle of air travel. It can hold thirty four people, has a built in Chocobo stable, strategy room, and the main deck has a beautiful view in the air. All my design too. It can travel three hundred eighty six knots thanks to my engine schematics. I modified a 16-s Ge engine and..."

It was good listening to Cid talk about his plane in detail. It seemed to be the only thing that he wouldn't bad mouth and would explain in full detail. I barely knew what he would mean by what types of accelerators he used or how his ascending aid air flow tube was one of his best designs. But I would still listen about how he had had a hand in building "Every goddamn nut and bolt" that the ship used. Cid is really a cool guy when you talked to him about stuff he liked.

The next day Cid was right. In the morning we still couldn't see the outline of the North Continent and by noon we didn't have any change. So I was once again stuck with having to entertain myself on a boat for what seemed to be an eternity, and one thing I knew about myself was I never did like to be bored for too long.

"I'm surprised you found the time to make this...and had the resources." Cloud said. After yesterday he would talk to the group, though a little more reluctantly. But being a fellow man that had broken down into an insane version of himself allowed me to identify with him more. It was kind of awkward to me to find my friendship with him strengthened in that regard, but it must have been a comfort for him.

"Leftover wrappers and a rock can be a godsend Cloud." I look back down at the wing of the tiny Bronco. On it was a white square outline that alternated the Broncos red wing and a white square I filled in. On it I had letters placed in formations. I had created a chess set. But the queens on each side were switched with U's and some of the pawns were not P's but upside down D's

"You do know this shows you have unhealthy eating habits." He sat down and moved his knight wrapper piece.

"I travel with you guys fighting monsters on a daily base. I am getting more exercise needed not only to run off my sweets but get some decent muscles too. I am actually in better shape than I was before I met you guys." It was true. After Junon when I realized I was getting muscles I started losing some fat. Granted I had an already decent weight and body fat to muscle ratio considering I was eighteen, but after all of this I lost a lot of what I had in fat and I had slightly more pronounced muscles.

"What are you guys doing?" I saw Tifa walk up after I moved a pawn. She raised an eyebrow at the odd picture of Cloud and I moving pieces of wrappers around on the plane.

"Chess." He stated. She kneeled down and looked at the wrappers closely.

"Wow...you have nothing to do Nathan?"

"I can't drive the plane since I had that argument with Cid."

"And I still say as a pilot I knew what I was doing." He yelled back.

"I was driving just fine!"

"Not this again, honestly what's the point about arguing about this? We're more sailing anyway since we are at sea." I open my mouth in rebuttal only to realize Barret was right on that. I felt really awkward at the thought.

"Well shit I just realized I was wrong...that sucks." I moved my rook and Cloud moves his knight again.

"Nathan!" I suddenly feel extra weight on my back and ignore it. Continuing my battle of wits with Cloud who had taken one of my pawns.

"Nathan I know you hear me!" I feel more weight and sigh.

"What is it Yuffie?"

"I need to borrow one of your materia." She demanded.

"For what exactly?" I took Cloud's knight with my rook. He moved his queen, seeming to ignore what was happening off the game.

"I'm bored! I need something to have fun with." Yuffie whines.

"And you need one of my materia for this?" I gave her a blank face while moving my bishop.

"Come on, it will be big and loud and fun to watch! Please Nate, just one time?" She pleaded. I chuckled a little, finding it cute. I pulled out my Fire materia and handed it to her.

"Make sure it has a tail when you blast it and explodes in the sky before skidding off the water." She squealed and took the materia. Tifa looked at me as if I was crazy.

"You just gave one of your best materia to Yuffie? Just to see a big fireball because you're both bored?" Tifa asked. I smiled as Cloud moved another wrapper piece.

"We like it when things go boom." Another piece moved.

Time flew by after that and soon enough we saw the outline of the Northern Continent coming up. When we landed you could clearly see the snow capped mountains and the forest of weeping willows similar to the ones around the Ancient's temple. When we entered we eventually came upon some bizarre looking sights.

Bone Village was very literal. The huts that occupied the area were made from old fossilized remains of creatures form thousands, if not millions, of years ago. But there were also junk piles all around the area. One of these was what looked like a fighter jet that crashed nose first into the ground right next to one of the larger fossil remains.

"Oh, tourists! Welcome to Bone Village, I am the head of excavation here. Did you all come to see the sights and find yourselves some exotic souvenirs?" The man in a green jumpsuit asked.

"Now, we need to get to the City of the Ancients." Cloud said. The man whistled.

"Good luck with that. You'll never get past the Sleeping Forest." He said.

"I'm sure we can take whatever it has." Barret said. The excavation head laughed.

"It's not monsters you have to worry about. The Sleeping Forest protects the city, if you go in you only come back out the same way." The group mulled over his words.

"Is there a way through?" Cloud asked.

"There is a legend that says the only way to get past the forest is by playing the Lunar Harp."

"Lunar Harp?" Nanaki asked.

"Its melody is said to be the only thing to wake the forest." He explained.

"And where would it be?" Cloud asked.

"You're in luck actually. Reports from the excavators around here say it's in the area, you just need to dig it up."

"Then can we borrow your equipment so we can find it?" Tifa asked.

"What are you nuts? This is delicate equipment we work with here. We can't just lend them to you...however I can spare a few guys to dig it up for you for a small fee." The gang seemed to brighten up. At least we didn't have to fight for this item from an eccentric amusement park owner.

"Alright everyone get one hundred gil. Each of you choose a spot and hope that's where the harp is." Although I thought it was a waste of money, we hired ten men to excavate. I climbed up the ladder and started tracing my steps. I didn't know the exact location but it was around a small hole that the harp was located. I soon find what I was looking for and set my man down. I met up back with the group.

"Alright ready the charges!" Immediately a large explosion sounded behind us and we all covered our ears. When the dust from the detonation dissipated we saw the man smiling.

"We'll be able to tell if any objects are around and start digging. You should sleep in our camp though; it will take up the night." The group nodded and went inside the large tent. Inside were basic military framed beds, nothing special. But good enough to sleep in.

"Everyone eat and rest up." Cloud ordered. Everyone ate what we had for rations and just sat around. Being in an excavation site was boring no matter what world you're from. No one really talked. Ever since we landed everyone was a bit on edge about being so close to finding Aeris. While everyone ate, I packed a few rations for myself. I don't know how long the journey was but it seemed to take a day for everyone to get to the city, sleep, and then get to the temple inside. I would need food as well as plenty of elixirs and potions if I ran into any trouble along the way. Everyone soon said their good nights and went to sleep.

I waited for a few hours, making sure everyone was out before moving out of my bed. When I decided to leave it was well past midnight. I made sure not to make any noise when I left the building. I had the urge to say something to everyone before I left but I held it back. The slightest peep would have woken some of them, especially Vincent. He seemed to be the only one who never really needed sleep which worried me, but he dozed off in the middle of the night. I started looking around in the dark until I found the chest out front of the large tent. I opened it fast so the creaks wouldn't wake anyone and pulled out what I wanted.

The Lunar Harp was really beautiful considering it was underground for who knows how long. The strings had a silver radiance while inside the moon shaped instrument. I took it and climbed up the ladder and went into the forest. For a while it seemed like a fairly normal forest. A few monsters here and there but avoidable. It wasn't until later when the trees started to light up bright white, the bark on the tree's becoming smooth looking and the whole area being lit despite it still being night. The Sleeping Forest was beautiful. I pulled out the harp and realized one clinical error in my plan.

"I can't play an instrument...dumb-ass." I almost slapped myself. I obviously needed to play the harp and here I was thinking I just needed it in my possession. Maybe I can wing it. I sang choir before so I know my notes. I plucked one string experimentally. It makes a sound, but it's hard for me to hear, but at that moment I felt like the whole forest stopped. Though it was hard to hear I knew what the string was tuned to and could guess the rest of the way. Now I just need to remember a simple song to play, something from a game that could be looped. I sat on the ground for a few minutes before I started plucking strings.

If I remember correctly the theme is high D, A, high D, A, B, high D. Sure enough I can hear the notes play Prelude to Light. Sure enough I felt a heavy energy pass through myself as well as the forest. I kept playing the strings over until I felt satisfied the forest was awake. I set down the harp for when Cloud and the others came along, I don't know if they needed it but it would be a good idea to leave it behind. I started jogging through the forest path. The trees seemed to be more lit than usual as I ran too.

Out the corner of my eye I saw a red orb floating and disappearing. I stopped and waited for it to appear again. The materia would flash in different spots but it soon came back from when I first saw it and I nabbed it. I pocketed the Kjata materia and started to jog again. It wasn't long until I came out of the forest and into an odd white landscape; the plants around here now seemed to look like they were made out of stone or coral. I rushed over and grabbed the water ring out of a nearby chest and put it on for the next boss fight. I continue running until I came along a path. I stopped and looked out in the distance. The large stoned tree-like structure standing out on the uneven and odd colored plains.

The City of Ancients was huge; it looked like a fossil just waiting to be discovered. The morning sun was starting to rise and I saw how the light would reflect off of it. The rays made the whole city look...alive in a sense. From here I could feel the energy of the place, much like the temple it felt as if it was still active even after so long. From what I can tell it was about half a day's journey if I ran. I would have to pick up the guard, magic, and power sources as well as the Comet materia here too; it would help if I had some more serious magic and enhancements to defend myself and Aeris with.

"Hopefully things will be different. I don't want to remember this place as one of my friend's coffin."

* * *

><p>Cloud woke with a start. He breathed heavily as he assessed his surroundings. He was relieved when he found himself still in the camp. Ever since his encounter with Sephiroth he didn't sleep well. He would now feel like he was always being watched or monitored... even controlled. He shook himself out of it and got up. It was morning now; the excavators must have found the harp by now.<p>

"Everyone up." He called. He started walking around. Everyone still seemed restless even after what seemed like a decent night's sleep for them. He guessed they all were on edge.

"Let's go, it'll take some time to get to the city I bet."

"Hey where's Nate?" Barret asked. Cloud looked over and saw that Nathan's bed was empty.

"He's probably out walking. Call his PHS." Tifa took hers out and started calling while the rest of the group kept getting ready.

"He's not answering." She said, sounding a little worried.

"Alright spread around the camp and find him." Everyone went off to look for Nathan. They had searched for twenty minutes before everyone was starting to worry.

"Any sign?" Cid called out.

"None here." Cait came back.

"I can't find him." Yuffie reported.

"I haven't been able to find him." Nanaki added.

Now Cloud was starting to worry. First Aeris disappeared, and now Nate? This wasn't going to bode well with the group.

"Where could he possibly be? We looked everywhere." Tifa said.

"Not everywhere." Vincent interjected. "Has anyone picked up the Lunar Harp?" he asked. Everyone shook their heads. Cloud went to the chest that it was supposed to be in and found it empty.

"It's gone..." He was confused now.

"Wait...so Nate went by himself?" Barret asked.

"But why?" Tifa questioned.

"Perhaps he has an ulterior motive." Vincent said. The group looked at him oddly but Cloud noticed a particular glare coming from Tifa.

"Nathan wouldn't do anything stupid, he had a reason." Nanaki countered.

"How are we supposed to get into the Sleeping Forest now?" Tifa switched topics.

"That's a good question, how?" Barret said.

"We can't just stand around. We need to move ahead. Maybe he left clues." Cloud said hopefully. Everyone seemed to agree and they started walking through the forest. Cloud couldn't believe Nathan would steal the harp and leave on his own. Why would he do it?

Was he guilty he couldn't persuade Aeris to accept their help? Was he making a stupid choice? What could have made him think this was a good idea?

"Wow...these trees are really something." Barret said. The team had finally gotten to the opening of the Sleeping Forest. The sight was one to behold. The trees had a magnificent glow the team had never seen before.

"Look!" Nanaki said. Cloud stopped in the middle of the path and found the Lunar Harp just set in the path.

"He left it here?" Tifa said, confused.

"So he wanted us to follow him?" Cait said, also confused about the circumstances.

"He might have left it here for us to use." Nanaki said. It made sense to Cloud. Nathan did do odd things but much like in Wutai when he borrowed their materia he returned all of them, including an extra summoning materia. Tifa picked up the harp and started plucking strings. They all felt the air in the forest sweep over them as it played. Tifa having played the piano as a kid helped.

"Let's keep going, we have a ways to go." The group traveled through the forest until they were in a desert like area, but it wasn't dry, more like aged. The entire place looked untouched from what they could see. They started following the ancient roads and were heading for the city. Cloud made sure to keep tabs on the group. Everyone was off, he could tell that much. Even the ever stoic Vincent shifted his eyes as if waiting to be attacked. They had encountered monsters along the way but were able to fight them off with their numbers. It only served to make him think how Nate got through on his own. It took them most of the day to travel to the Forgotten City.

"Man this place is old." Yuffie said.

"Must be at least a few hundred years old, it might have been here thousands of years ago." Nanaki said looking around.

"Aeris is here? But where?" Tifa thought out-loud. Cloud led everyone on a forked path. He decided to explore some of the odd seashell shaped houses. What surprised him was that if there was a chest, its items were already taken, serving to prove Nate was ahead of them. One house he explored actually seemed new compared to the rest of the city, it had beds that hadn't been turned to dust.

"Yo there's some beds." Barret pointed out the obvious.

"Convenient." Vincent mumbled.

"Maybe we should rest. We traveled most of the day; if Nathan's ahead he can't be far." Nanaki pitched. Cloud didn't want to sleep but he couldn't deny the group was a little winded. Most of the group took beds while others just sat on the ground, leaning on the walls. Cloud was one, he knew his limitations. Being a SOLDIER let him go without sleep for at least four days before succumbing to fatigue. It made him wonder how Vincent survived on just resting his eyes. He remembered vaguely when he asked one time while traveling and he said that he had enough sleep after thirty years. He knew though. Vincent had nightmares much like him; Vince could apparently survive on the barest amount of rest.

The sun had set and the group was comfortable. Night was beginning to fall and Cloud's nerves were high. He knew Sephiroth was near, somehow he could just sense it. He didn't know how far but he could feel a chill roll down his spine only the silver haired general could. What freaked him out was that he knew Aeris was there too. But he couldn't feel her.

"I feel it..." He stood up. He was thinking about leaving when everyone else had started shifting.

"Cloud? What is it?" Tifa asked.

"Aeris...she's here...and so is Sephiroth." Everyone was alert now.

"How is he here, how do you know?" Yuffie yelled.

"I can feel it in my soul." He could only describe it as a... pull. A force telling him to go somewhere, yet it allowed him to know where he was going. But this time he felt something else. It was dangerous.

"We have to find her." No one argued and the group moved out. It was night now. They went to the center of the whole place and found yet another shell building, yet it was larger. Inside they found nothing of interest until they went down a stairwell. The stairs were suspended somehow; they led down through some large area under the structure. Below them was what appeared to be a castle. The group went down to find the place didn't have the signs of age or time the upper buildings did. The team went down lower until they reached the castle. Cloud looked around to see a familiar pink dress in the middle of a small atrium.

"Aeris?" He asked out loud. She didn't respond. Cloud ran down until he found himself at the bottom of a few pillars. He started to hop up when the rest of the gang showed up.

"Is that really her?" Tifa asked, he voice filled with hope.

"Stay back; it might be a trap... I'll go first." Cloud said. He climbed the rest of the pillars and slowly walked up the stairs. When he was at the top he couldn't have been happier to see Aeris so peaceful. She was okay; he didn't have to worry anymore.

Suddenly his vision flashed red. He felt the same thing he felt when he gave Sephiroth the Black Materia. He wanted to warn everyone but his mouth kept shut. He body wasn't listening to him! His hand reached for his sword and unsheathed it. He took a step forward, then another, then another. He kept walking until he was right in front of Aeris. His arms started to lift the sword and attack her. He tried to fight it. His arms were shaking form the conflict of control. He almost swung until he heard his friends shout.

"Cloud stop!"

"What are you doing?"

"Cloud!

"Don't do it!"

"Keep fighting!"

The chorus of voices snapped him out and he fell back. His body was listening to him again. He was shocked.

"What are you making me do?" He caught his breath. He looked at Aeris only to see her staring back. He wanted to say something, sorry at least. But the moment she smiled at him he froze. She seemed so peaceful. He was happy they got her back.

There was suddenly a shift in shadows above her and he looked up. His eyes widened in shock as he saw the long black cloak, the sharp green eyes, and the shimmering steal of Masamune start to fall. Time was too fast for him. He couldn't warn her, he couldn't defend her, he couldn't save her.

His heart broke and he felt himself frozen in fright. When Sephiroth crashed down onto the ground, he wanted to scream at not Aeris being pierced, but for the man who pushed her out of the way.


	29. Chapter 29

Major A/N

Yes I know everyone is like "WTF ZOMG" and such so I will explain. Yesterday I had finished the chapter. However, my computer had a major malfunction and most of my work I kept on here was lost. I was angry until i realized i was smart enough to keep back ups of the story on a USB. The result? I only had the beginning saved. Because of this i had to re type the entire chapter from memory. Because of this I feel this chapter isn't as good as it could have been and it annoys me. This may be one of my revised chapters in the future but I am not sure.

Okay lighter a sense its kind of funny this happened. A random anon review mentioned for me to not, like many authors; wait one month before making this chapter. the idea of waiting a day or two passed my mind just to spite anon, but i scratched it...but i had to redo this so...i have no idea how this works out.

I got Asura's Wrath and i must say its like playing an anime. The crossover idea i mentioned a few chappa's ago might actually be a project.

the future for Stranger from the sky. Due to some ideas i have some of the plot lines of AC and DoC won't be cannon, especially DoC, BUT i actually thought of a plot line on the fly that I am proud of considering i have literally been writing this entire story from idea to idea.

Botoingness now holds the title for longest review as well as most enthusiastic, he has updated his story _chosen_ as well. The-Living-Shadow holds most in depth, and I think that's all for news. So audience the chappa you've been waiting for.

* * *

><p>Ch 29<p>

I remember a long time ago hearing a quote. "Hope for the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised." If anything I stopped at the first and was completely knocked back by the last.

When I had entered the underground temple I was happy Aeris wasn't already there. It gave me time to plan where and when I would be able to strike. But I found out how bad the area was. In the atrium Aeris would pray there wasn't a path to get to it, only a few stones and stair case. It was surrounded by water and basically isolated from any point of easy entry. I didn't have enhanced jumping abilities even though I did drink any source we came upon.

In the end the only thing I was able to find that could have remotely worked was a pillar off to the side. But I couldn't balance myself for a whole day on it. I hollowed it out with a few lightning bolts and waited. If there was anything that was key here, it was patience. For the entire day I waited, going over what I would do. Jumping in early was the only chance I would have. If I could save Aeris as well as at least harm Sephiroth in some way, the situation would have been perfect.

When I had first heard footsteps I froze up before finally checking. It was one of the hardest things in my life to see Aeris just waiting for her death and look away from it. As much as I wanted to go up and yell at her for doing something this stupid, dangerous... and ultimately unselfish act that she knew would help everyone. I didn't know how the process to summon Holy worked, whether she was only able to succeed in her last few moments or it just took a long time. All I knew was the sure way for Holy to still be summoned to stop Meteor as we fought Sephiroth was during the seconds before her death.

Eventually, it came time for the group to arrive. I had placed myself so I could cast a spell and knock Sephiroth away. Every nerve in my body stood on end when I heard Cloud's footsteps. I left my spot to see him slowly approach Aeris with his sword in hand. I held myself back from interrupting when he was about to attack her. When he finally came to his senses, noticed the shadow on the ground and looked. As much as I had planned, I had over looked multiple factors.

Sephiroth is a SOLDIER First Class, the best in fact. This led to him having speed that a normal human couldn't match. The minute I saw him jump down, he descended far faster than gravity should have let him. Not only that, but he does have a sword that had about three times the length of my sword. Even with my planning, Sephiroth was considered a genius and he knew he had a perfect moment to kill her.

The only thing that ran through my mind was to get Aeris out of the way. My casting time took about two to three seconds, which I didn't have. Taking a chance, I jumped from my position onto the podium and pushed Aeris out of the way. Looking back, the proper term would have been knocked since I was in her spot when I got her out of the way.

Being in Final Fantasy I experienced many things. Burns, bone fractures, wounds, cuts, concussions, mental and physical exhaustion along with many other things. None of which could have been compared to being stabbed by a man with a seven foot long sword, with strength to stop a Behemoth, slamming down on me. I felt more than five feet of the blade pass through me.

The pain didn't even register until I had breathed only to cough up blood. My odd angle caused him to hit somewhere near my lungs, if not through one. I yelled out, I had no tolerance for pain even after all of the fighting I had been through. My breathing was shallow, I wanted to catch my breath but I could never get enough air.

"Persistent little..." I looked behind me to see Sephiroth's piercing green eyes narrowed in anger. Even with the horrible feeling of steel stuck inside me, it gave me some pleasure to see his frustration. But his eyes shifted from me to the very surprised Aeris.

"Then there will be two more souls to add." Suddenly I felt the sword twist sideways. The adrenaline running through me allowed me to realize he was just going to slice me and Aeris in one hit. With so few options I grabbed onto what was protruding out my chest and held as tight as I could. The result was me being slammed into Aeris and knocking her into Cloud who was still standing there stunned.

"Accept your fate; all that is left is that I go north to the Promised Land! You'll become a part of the energy as will I." I looked back again only to spit blood in his face. I started to channel my magic.

"You'll never succeed," I coughed out. Talking was becoming hard and painful but I took another breath. "I know you won't...even I stopped you...from killing Aeris."

His only answer was to shove his sword farther into me, and the pain intensified. I could see a small puddle around my legs begin to build. I looked up and saw both Cloud and Aeris looking at me, frozen in fear. In that moment I decided to make one last move against Sephiroth.

"Go... to hell." I cast my strongest lightning spell through my gauntlets. Electricity surged and passed through me to him. Every last one of my nerves was shot as it felt like being hit by several lightning bolts. I felt my body start to shut down from the pain and shock. I felt Sephiroth pull his sword back out of me before I fell on the ground. I felt my eyes close even though I tried to force myself awake.

I felt my body slump down onto the ground. The pain soon started to rescind and my breaths were slowly getting lower and lower. My body started to feel lighter as time passed. It felt like minutes, but I didn't hear any large scale battling. In fact everything seemed quiet. Forcing myself, I opened my eyes to find myself still in the city, but no one was around. With what strength I had I pushed myself onto the wall to look around.

I heard footsteps on the stairwell. I bent to look over only to have a hand force me back accompanied by a laugh.

"_Always stubborn when you're knocked down. Is it so hard to acknowledge you're weak?"_

* * *

><p>Aeris couldn't believe what she saw. She had been prepared for the worst of outcomes when she had decided to leave the group and help them. But nothing could have surprised her more than this. One of her friends had sacrificed themselves in her place, and looking at his still form, the sight made her stomach tighten in fear.<p>

She knew she was going to die. Back at the temple she could feel Cloud had a connection to Sephiroth, but she didn't know how it worked. When she saw Cloud act as he did at the temple, it meant Sephiroth could have intervened whenever he wanted. He could manipulate Cloud and cause him to do horrible things. Sephiroth would have the upper hand always, literally being a step ahead. She didn't know how they could beat him until the spirits of the Ancients told her what her useless materia really was. It was the Black materia's counterpart, a defense if something sinister really did get its hands on the power of Meteor.

She had prepared herself essentially. She knew Sephiroth would attack her when she would leave, but told Cloud so she could see him and everyone else one last time. She made peace while she prayed, and when she saw Cloud overcome the manipulations of Sephiroth, she was happy. She felt Sephiroth's presence slowly approach her. She wanted to give Cloud one last smile before she was gone.

Then Nathan intervened. Aeris could sense much when the Ancient spirits helped her. Yet Nathan was a case that baffled her. He was human, yet not like everyone else. His spirit energy was so different compared to others. The Lifestream recycled souls but still kept the memories of those that had the soul originally. If she could visualize it, nearly everyone's soul had the distinct color of a lush green, much like the Lifestream. Those like Sephiroth were tainted with black, Nathan's would be grey; his soul would be blank, only used once, and had never been touched before.

Not being a natural part of the world, she couldn't sense him. When she was pushed out of the way, it shocked her. Now looking at his still form on the ground she could feel herself shaking.

"...Nathan?" She asked in a weak voice, the lack of movement was disturbing her.

"You killed him..." Cloud stated, shell shocked from the scene that played before him. Sephiroth looked down in indifference.

"He is now a part of the spiritual world. When I unite with the planet, so will he. His soul will help me ascend to my rightful place as-"

"He's dead!" Aeris shouted at him. She was willing to die for her friends. Yet he sacrificed himself and he was being dismissed. This was something she couldn't just ignore.

"No matter, he was a willing sacrifice. Just as you will be." Sephiroth pulled his sword back to attack Aeris.

"No!" When he tried to strike, Cloud brought his sword down to stop the blade and took another swing only for Sephiroth to jump back onto the ledge of the atrium.

"You killed one of my friends! He got angry, he got sad, he would be happy, and you brush it all off as if he never could make a difference! He had feelings like everyone else and you took them away! They cycle of nature and your stupid plan mean nothing!" Cloud was in a tirade. One friend was saved only for another to take their place; he never wanted anyone to die. Nathan never did anything to hurt anyone. He helped every last one of them, conversed on a regular basis. He never even had a true reason to help them. No vendetta, no mission, no personal gain, yet he fought alongside them every step of the way.

Sephiroth looked at Cloud with a bewildered look. "What are you saying? Are you telling me you have feelings too?"

"Of course! Who do you think I am?" He yelled back. Sephiroth just smiled and started laughing. His deep voice only served to make Cloud growl.

"Stop acting as if you're sad. There's no need for you to act angry either." Sephiroth jumped in the air and started to hover, his arms outstretched.

"Because, Cloud. You are..." The sentence never finished. Instead Sephiroth flew away and dropped something. Cloud's eyes widened when another deformed limb was dropped and rapidly grew. Cloud and Aeris jumped off the ledge. The flesh grew larger until it destroyed the atrium and turned into the same monster from the boat, only with deep crimson skin.

The team immediately responded and started attacking the large creature.

"What the fuck happened up there?" Cid yelled, readying his spear.

"Where's Aeris?" Cloud yelled. They went in separate directions. He looked around until he saw her in the water holding Nathan's body, a look of relief on her face.

"Cloud, he's alive, but just barely. We need to heal him now!" Cloud felt more relieved than anything that their friend was still alive. It was quickly knocked out of him when a blue flame from the Jenova creature caught his arm and he had to put it out.

Now was not the time to relax. They needed to kill this thing and help Nathan before he was too far gone.

"What the hell is going on?" Barret yelled firing his gun.

"Sephiroth nearly killed Nate." The various reactions from the group weren't surprising. "I'll tell you the rest later, we need to kill that thing." He charged and took a chunk of flesh with his sword. He was about to take another strike when a bright blue light filled his vision until it his head started to ache and burn. He jumped back, disoriented from the Blue Light attack.

"This one is different from last time." He said clutching his head. Tifa came and healed him while Red started casting.

"Earth!" The ground below Jenova opened up and allowed a part of the monster to fall in, then closed on it. Crushing a chunk of Jenova, causing it to scream out. Another flame was cast, but Red dodged and started for another earth spell.

"Take that you monster!" Yuffie threw her shuriken that was outfitted with her Elemental and Nate's fire materia. The metal made contact and caused flames to start slicing through as well as the blades. Jenova cast Blue Light for the entire group now causing everyone to feel the splitting pain and lack of sight.

"Are those the only tricks?" Cait asked. Then a large body of water suddenly formed around the group and crushed them. Everyone could barely breathe and the constant shifting of the water felt like a demi spell. The whole group fell to the ground and started hacking. The only one who seemed fairly okay was Cait, but the water still caused his joints to get crushed and damage the machine.

Tifa started casting buff spells and the group was about to attack again. Vincent started shooting along with Barret, but the bullets had little effect on the monster. It cast a blue flame at the two, causing them to separate. Cid and Red tried to attack only to be knocked back by a flame attack. Cait Sith attempted another shout but another Aqualung was aimed at the group. Almost everyone was hit and had the after effects of near drowning and sudden pressure changes. Cloud could just manage to stand up while Vincent came over.

"We can't let it attack like that again." Vincent said, still choking on some water.

"Then we keep attacking!" Yuffie recovered fast and got back up. She focused on the fire materia and started to cast when Cloud noticed a sheen on Jenova.

"Yuffie wait!" She cast the level three fire spell anyway. The giant ball flew at Jenova only to bounce harmlessly off and back at the group. Everyone dodged in different directions to avoid the brunt of the attack. But the splash damage caused Cloud and everyone else to receive horrible burns.

"How did it get more powerful?" Tifa said while healing Red and Barret. Cloud looked around to see everyone scatter when Jenova prepared another body of water. He knew the spell would only hit maybe two people, but he couldn't tell who until Jenova focused on its intended targets.

Aeris hunched over the recovering Nathan.

"Aeris, get away, quick!" She looked up when the spell surrounded the both of them. Aeris hadn't suffered from the attacks from Jenova considering her distance, but Nathan was already injured to an alarming degree. Attacking him now would only seal his fate. Cloud ran at the creature and impaled it. The spell was cut short but it still caused Aeris to hack and try to hold herself up on the ground. Cloud mustered as much strength as he could and jumped while his sword was still in Jenova.

He was able to make an eight foot slice in Jenova, until it finally started to pay attention to him. The Climhazzard technique helped.

"Someone help Aeris and Nate!" He yelled. Yuffie being the quickest ran over and started to help Aeris get Nate away. Vincent appeared next to Cloud.

"We need heavy attacks to take it down." Vincent got rid of his headband. Cloud knew what was happening and started to channel a blade beam attack.

"You guys prepare, I got this mass of shit under control." Cid had something in his hand before he used his ever present cigarette to light it. He threw it at Jenova and the explosion took out another chunk of flesh. It started casting furiously at him but Cait kept his sound wave attacks up to make the flames veer off. Vincent had changed into his Death Gigas and started charging itself when Cloud shot out his Blade Beam.

Jenova was sliced at a slant and was mostly hunched by now. The Death Gigas charged the monster and threw electric charged punches at Jenova. The creature finally stopped screaming in agony and started to dissolve back into the ground. Cloud finally allowed himself to relax. He couldn't believe how weak he felt. One of his friends was close to death and the rest were nearly killed themselves. He wondered how Sephiroth could be so far ahead of them, how he could always stay that way.

_Because, you are a puppet. _An unknown thought passed through his mind. But it made him question himself. He was a puppet? Was he really being controlled somehow? Was he a liability to the team?

"Cloud come look!" Yuffie yelled. He snapped out of it and ran over to Aeris and Nathan. What surprised him was that Nathan was now breathing better. It was still uneven and shallow, but he could see the rise and fall of his chest. He even noticed the wound he had was slightly smaller.

"How? That attack should have..." he stopped. His friend was alive now; there wasn't any reason to bring up his possible death.

"That water attack should have drowned him" Vincent pointed out.

"He has this...but where did he get it?" Aeris said holding onto a ring. Upon closer inspection he saw that it was a water ring, specifically meant to counter water spells and he had it on at the perfect time. Cloud saw this as a godsend. Jenova had inadvertently helped Nathan recover. He wouldn't ignore the opportunity.

"Thank the Planet. We need to leave and get back to Bone Village and watch over him. I'll explain to everyone what happened but we need to hurry." Nathan was healed but he still needed proper care. Barret came over and picked him up. The group left with everyone alive. Cloud noticed Aeris and Yuffie try to keep an eye on Nathan, but that was to be expected. He had played a very dangerous game that nearly killed him, but saved someone else.

Cloud knew Nate deserved his respect.

* * *

><p>"I'm surprised you're not using me to run rampant again." I spat. My white eyed counterpart just kept his wicked smile.<p>

"_**My**__ body needs rest. Your stunt only hampered what progress I would need so keeping you here was the most logical option."_ He said in a matter of fact tone.

"I won't let you take me over again."

"_You're here now, granted I commend you for keeping me out for...what was it? A few weeks. You have will power. A useless trait, but none the less recognizable."_ His words didn't seem condescending but had no flattery to them what so ever.

"_But that isn't why you're here. I have a proposition you will find invaluable considering the circumstances."_

"I would never make a deal with myself. The sound of that is insane as it is, let alone the fact you're actually-" I was cut off when he pulled out his Fusion and made a gash across my face. The cut wasn't too deep but somehow I could feel blood start to drip. The pain was very real. He lost the smile and glared at me with his empty eyes.

"_I can cut you. Every time you lose yourself and I bring you back I gain more control. The more control I have, the closer I can get to slitting that throat of yours. I am so close to killing you in here and taking over. Now you __**will**__ listen." _Pulled his sword back and knelt down.

"_I have seen you alter not one, but four deaths that were guaranteed in this world. Your interference in key points has allowed you to gain trust and power people from Earth would kill for. Now you have two options. My offer is that when I take over, and I assure you I will; I will allow you to keep some semblance of your conscience inside so you can feel and see everything that happens." _I stared to scowl. The monster was pretentious and immoral, but being sent here injured made it so I couldn't do much but sit and listen.

"The second?" I asked.

"_I torture you throughout my time as I control you. Then when I finally tire of you I will obliterate your conscience in the most painful manner possible."_

"How do you think you will become god instead of Sephiroth? No one would let you get the chance. I'm still weak compared to the others besides magic. One silence spell and you're done." The only response I got was a very toothy smile.

"_I am you... and you are me. I represent your shattered mindset, rage, anger, hate, power hungry, and sadistic. But I still have your memories, every technique you have wasted memorizing from games and shows I know. I know how you act. It would be easy to imitate you. Then when the chance arises…" _He held out his arms and spun. When I got a look at his face I saw normal eyes and a sudden voice change. The malice and disdain was gone.

"Sephiroth will be dead and I will take his place as god. Becoming the envoy of death that will destroy everything. I may even find a way back home just to kill everyone there too, maybe even other worlds." I saw the evil smile on my face now rise on him.

"And I, Nathan River, will find true joy and pleasure... in the screams of terror, the pleas for mercy being ignored, and the delicious smells of raw death filling every corner of every world, universe, even dimensions I so choose. And when everything that had been possibly conserved is turned to nothing but ash, I will create life..._just to do it all over again._" His face reverted back and he started to laugh insanely. I couldn't describe the fear inside myself. I knew he had planned to kill everything... but saying it all with my face and voice triggered something in me. I felt true fear.

"_In fact...I'll keep your mind for the first moments. So that you will see me torture and maim every. One. Of. Your. Friends."_ He pulled me up by my throat.

"_And I will take the most pleasure from this plan...when I make you kill Yuffie...and make you laugh and smile while you do it." _I couldn't move. Somehow he could describe in such clarity I could picture everything. I couldn't breathe; the entire atmosphere was like being surrounded by monstrous intent.

"_It seems it's time for you to leave. A pity, your pain is the greatest joy for me."_ He dropped me and started to walk off.

"_The next time we meet...it will be your end. Enjoy every moment." _I felt myself start to black out. I had never felt so glad for myself to fall unconscious.

* * *

><p><strong>ATE<strong>

"They are stronger than before. They took another arm even after all of this time." Sephiroth had been resting with Jenova in a snowy field. His mother was angry again, the puppet and his friends seemed to cause her so many problems as of late.

"Cloud will follow me still mother. Once he delivers the Black Materia, he will lose his worth." He looked down; his ever present frown deeper than usual.

"I couldn't kill the girl mother. I am sorry." He felt her presence lighten. She always spoke to him softly but he could still be scolded by the most subtle of words. He never wanted to disappoint mother.

"It is not your fault. The pest interfered. You will gain another opportunity." Jenova hissed. As of late, the human she was interested in was always called the pest much as Cloud was the puppet.

"You don't wish for his abilities?" Sephiroth couldn't have cared less if the boy joined or not. He admitted from Cloud's eyes the boy showed exceptional magic capabilities. It reminded him of one of his old friends, Genesis. If Jenova had taken him, he may have even surpassed the dead SOLDIER.

"Your strength is more than enough. Seeing the weakling nearly die by your hands proved he will never meet my expectations. In fact, kill him along with the girl. His interference was disturbingly well placed. I couldn't sense him until you struck."

"As you wish, mother." Sephiroth was agitated when he found that the boy lived through Cloud's memories. He must admit the pest's preparedness against mother was very strategic.

"Now come my son. We must get you to your true body. You will soon achieve the power you deserve." Sephiroth nodded and started walking with his mother. Soon their plan would come to fruition. He and his mother would finally gain what they deserved. The Planet's power would soon ascend to them, then everyone would pay.


	30. Chapter 30

A/N okay another short chapter, the thing is its a talky kind of chapter. Also since I forgot last chapter I have to make these acknowledgements now before I forget. Kudos to Velkan Wulf for nailing nearly every variation of Locke and Hilda and Duelist of Dawn for guessing the two correctly once. Locke was one of the protagonists from ff6 and Hilda, although having many variations, I was referencing Princess Hilda from FF 2.

Also to help Firefly with his/her confusion. Don't think of it as a deal, more of an ultimatum really.

Nothing else to report, so on with the read.

* * *

><p>Ch 30<p>

Everything ached. My head felt like it was tearing itself in two. Every one of my muscles was stiff and a few didn't even respond when I tried to get up. I could breathe better, but I still felt out of it. My chest had the worst of it though. I sat up and looked to see a circular scar near my heart. I finally sat up and groaned. Looking around I was in the dull greenish tent everyone had slept in the other night. I felt a spike of pain and I yelled out, it was the stupidest idea to use a third level lighting spell with a sword fucking stabbed in me. Sephiroth could take fifty of those and still act as if he was bitten by a mosquito.

"I am a god damn moron," I grunted. Then he decided to interrupt. Make a deal my ass, everything is going against me. The Planet, Sephiroth, my own god damn mind...Nothing is ever going to be easy for me.

"Nate?" I look over to a few beds down to see a wide eyed Aeris. Despite everything I had been through, I couldn't hold back the smile on my face seeing her alive.

"So I guess my plan worked?" Before I knew it, I was in a crushing hug with the flower girl.

"You're alive!"

"And so are you!" I cheerfully replied. It may have sounded like a stupid response to her, but to me it meant so much more.

"I have to get everyone else. Stay here." She ran off and I chuckled. It wasn't like I could go anywhere. I shifted in my bed until the sheets were off. I was very surprised to see that the rest of my body didn't have any bandages, it didn't even have scratches. Did the battle with Jenova really go that easy? Did Sephiroth participate?

"Look who finally decided to wake up." I look and see Barret now at the tent entrance. "You have a lot of shit to explain."

"Barret, I just woke up, cut me some slack." I whined. I have enough on my mind as is.

"Fine. But only because I'm going to get a good laugh." Barret sat in a chair across from me.

"What are you talking about?"

"Wait for it..." Seconds later I was suddenly tackled and squeezed. Causing me to try to scream in pain, but I couldn't let anything out.

"Nathan! I can't believe you!" I was hugged tighter.

"Yuffie, dear god I'm still healing!" Suddenly I feel a slap across my numb face and finally fell back, my pain threshold finally giving out. Lucky for me Yuffie pulled back.

"I would hit you harder, but Aeris says you still have to recover." I opened my eyes to see Tifa put her glove back on. The rest of the gang piled in.

"Good to see you're awake," Said Cloud.

"Me too," I said.

"You really gave us a scare there kid," Cid said.

"Well, I recovered as you can see." I tried to sit up more but my muscles tightened instead causing me to tilt of to the side.

"I can see that." Cloud chuckled. "Aeris was healing the past two days to make sure your nerves weren't ruined."

"Two days?" How in the hell does five minutes in my head translate to two days?

"And you still need another day before you're allowed to travel. Seriously Nate, you don't know how bad you were." Tifa explained.

"It's only a sword wound with some lung damage, we can keep moving." I assured. I had almost been stoned before and I was able to travel.

"You seriously don't know how bad you had it Nate. Your stunt shot nearly every nerve in your body. Cure spells are powerful but you had a metal sword inside you as well as casting a level three lightning. If we didn't help you sooner, you wouldn't be able to feel anything right now and you'd be partially paralyzed."

"Oh," Was all I said, the severity of the situation finally sinking in.

"Why did you go on your own?" I look up to see Cloud with a stern, yet sad expression. "You saved Aeris, but you could have had the team back you up."

I didn't want to explain to him that if I took him Sephiroth would have gone too. I needed Cloud and everyone else out so Sephiroth couldn't interfere when I would.

"I...I knew Aeris was going to die." I said. Everyone's eyes seemed to widen.

"Nathan?" Nanaki asked. I gave him a small glance before continuing.

"I didn't trust you Cloud. When you started acting different, you reminded me about how I was. You had hurt her already, and you were confused about yourself at Gongaga. I thought if you got near her, you were going to finish the job...so I waited to prevent that." I made a very bold lie. Now was not the time to be found out. The only way I could get out of this was to divert attention to Cloud's mental stability. It left a very bad taste in my mouth how it sounded so natural.

"Nathan? That's horrible. How could you-"

"He's right." Cloud interrupted Tifa. "Tifa think about it. Did you really believe I was going to be perfectly fine?" Tifa didn't answer, Cloud continued.

"Nathan knows how he was when he lost himself. I still lifted my sword against Aeris when we found her. He was right to be there." The mood was darker now. Everyone thinking about the whole ordeal.

"I'm sorry I didn't trust you." I said.

"In the end your distrust saved Aeris." Nanaki mentioned.

"Don't be sorry Nate, you did what you thought was right." Barret added.

"I can't say I never suspected you Nate. It's only natural." Cloud said. I felt horrible for making him feel bad about his person.

"Okay everyone's sorry can we just move on. I hate this gloomy stuff." Yuffie cut the mood and got everyone back on track.

"She's right...Sephiroth is still alive. He said he would head north. We will follow tomorrow after Nathan is rested. We'll take shifts if he needs anyone's help, the rest will gather supplies and information. Nanaki, you're first shift." Everyone agreed and left besides the red feline. It was a while before he had decided to speak.

"You were very reckless. Your plan could have failed at any time." I sighed.

"I saved her, that is all that's important."

"You couldn't have done anything else? Set traps, block him off?"

"Nanaki, I am an ordinary guy, what the hell do I know about traps? Sure I was a day ahead but what the fuck could I make with travel supplies? And Sephiroth came from that glass floor room. In all honesty Nanaki, I was lucky to even push Aeris out of the way. That platform was literally made for isolation. Cloud was the only one there so no one would be able to help her." I explained. I knew I could have done better, but the past is past. Aeris is safe.

"I guess the ends justify the means then. What will you do now?" He asked.

"I still have to travel with you guys till the end. After that everything should take care of itself."

"But Sephiroth would be revived in two years." He argued.

"Nanaki, in two years there will be a disease called Geostigma. It is Mako tainted with Jenova cells that washed over the world. It is fatal, and no cure was ever found for two years. It wasn't until a spring appeared in Aeris's garden that had water that countered the effects. But with Aeris alive, she can make the water at will. The cure can be distributed early and Geostigma will only be a small nuisance." Nanaki absorbed the information. One of the features I admired about him.

"Okay, but didn't Hojo do something in three years?" I nodded.

"He is absorbed into the mind of the leader of Deepground, Weiss the Immaculate. He was a very powerful special op SOLDIER. Deepground was sealed under Midgar until they escaped three years later. Hojo, as Weiss, took and killed thousands of people to bring OMEGA Weapon to take the souls of this world and find a new, more habitable planet."

"How will you stop that?"

"Easier than saving Aeris. When we fight Hojo and we defeat him, I make sure that every part of his body is burned to ash, then I will crush the ash into dust, then blow up the dust just to make sure the dust is turned into atoms." I said grimly. Though for some reason I felt a ping of joy from my words.

"Are you so sure we'll succeed?" He asked. I would have said yes, but I felt my wound act up a little and fell back into the bed. Nanaki cast a Cure spell and I felt better. My memories flashed for a second back to when I was pierced by Sephiroth. Out of all the battles everyone had been through, it was then I felt my weakest and most vulnerable to death. Thinking now... I could die at any moment if I kept traveling with Cloud and the gang. Then who would help when everything seemed off? When the group was lost I got them to the right location quick. Without me they still would be the best...but wouldn't have an ace anymore.

"Nanaki... I want you to do something for me." He looked up. "I am going to tell you as much as I can about everything that's going to happen. I want you to remember every detail I tell you."

"What is this all of a sudden?"

I sighed. "Nanaki... the way I have been doing everything. I realized... I have a high chance of death. I need to make sure someone knows what's going to happen before. I'm not saying I am going to die, it's just I need to be smarter now. This will be a good last ditch back up plan."

"...I understand." He said simply. Nanaki's entire shift consisted of me explaining to him what would happen in the coming times. Cloud breaking down, the hunt for their Huge Materias, the WEAPONS emerging. I told him about the novellas On the Way to a Smile and how Dirge of Cerberus would work if I didn't interrupt, it would give him a base if I caused a big change.

"So you don't know how it ends officially?" He asked.

"The vaguest I can get Nanaki is that in two hundred years you're still alive with your children."

"Children?" He nearly shouted. "How do I have children?" I rose an eyebrow.

"Wasn't there a female you knew a year ago? I can't remember her name but she was your species, you protected her at Cosmo."

"Deneh..." Nanaki mumbled. "I had forgotten..."

"She's alright, whatever the hell your ritual does she's on some kind of altar. You can visit her when all this is over."

"So I'm not the last... she's still alive." Our conversation was cut short when Cloud came in.

"Nanaki you're good." He nodded and walked out.

"So you're my next keeper?" I asked in good humor. I saw a small smile tug at Cloud's lips before he forced it down.

"No, we have supplies but we decided to help the diggers, they said anything we found we could keep." He walked off and I went to back staring at the top of the tent when my next helper walked in.

Just my luck when it was none other than Cait Sith.

I kept my expression neutral and went back to staring at the tent. I still didn't want to confront Cait on what had happened. Especially with me being too weak to move a muscle without getting hurt. But I guess it's inevitable if I need to keep fighting with everyone.

"So..." I drew out. I didn't know how to start the conversation really.

"I guess this is kinda weird suddenly talking now huh?" Cait replied. The cat grinned. Well I guess he isn't mad... I think.

"I guess...where do you want to start?" I asked.

"I really want to know when you found out." Thank god I had a plane ride to sort something out.

"I suspected you when we first met."

"Really?" He asked, surprised.

"Everyone was cool with talking animals when Nanaki came in. But a cat too? Then when you got shocked by that Trine attack back in Nibel, you short circuited. You are a machine, being controlled by someone. When you finally revealed to be a spy, I could only think of one man with the expertise to operate you." I looked at the cat. "So Reeve, how good was I?"

The cat shook his head and smiled. Something I wasn't expecting. "You really are a pocket genius. First your portable technology, and now your deduction skills. Shinra would have hired you on the spot." He still believed that lie about the MP3 and phone being my inventions? Well I hadn't done anything to disprove him...

"I have one question though," I asked. "Why do you choose to keep fighting with us? You're our enemy, and when you were found out, you used hostages to make us take you with us... not something a typical Shinra employee would do." The cat seemed to look down with a sad smile. Can Reeve transfer his emotions through Cait? I never could figure that out.

"I find it odd... you all fight to save the world with everything against you. You won't receive any recognition, you will always have Shinra in the way, and you all will continue to experience hardship. Yet everyone keeps going. I wonder why you all do of this?" I laughed. Reeve was a genius, but being in the company narrowed his views.

"Sometimes Cait... people don't do things for money, or recognition, or power. For some people, they just want to do the right thing." I could see the look of contemplation on the cats face. "Are you having a change of heart?" I asked.

"I... I know Shinra does a lot of bad stuff, I ignored it until now. But with everything that's happening, it s like everything they do could cause more destruction rather than help the people." The cat's Scottish voice started getting lower. "I find myself questioning what side I'm fighting for now."

"Cait... Reeve... whoever you want to be, you've helped us so much since you joined. I can't blame you for taking the key, it was your job. Seeing you now, I just want to say you're taking a step in the right direction. We'll need all the help we can get, and unlike a few of the guys I'm willing to ask a former enemy." This seemed to make the cat take a step back before regaining his bearings. It was a while before he responded.

"...I'll help as much as I can!" The cat stood on top of the mog while it did a macho pose. I laughed and shook my head.

"But I don't want to be called by name. I don't want to cause you trouble, so call me Cait again."

"Deal." So Reeve was turning around. This is good, he'll probably start to slow his reports and we can get away with more things.

"By the way, if we are ever back in Shinra when this is all over, I want my stuff back." The cat smiled.

"That may be hard. Your phone design is amazing, I already had prototype's ready to be tested. Energy efficient and longer range communication. Your music player is so advanced as well, I dare say it is Shinra grade; the president has been using it almost nonstop. How did you make them?" I smiled.

"Trade secret Cait. Until I get them back I won't tell you." The cat huffed and turned away. I guess Cait is going back to normal. This went better than I expected. That's one more loose end tied up. Reeve was finally coming around; good to know he's still a good guy at heart. But still Rufus has been using my music player? Damn it, I'll never get it back now. I need to get Reeve to make a double if I survive everything.

Soon enough Cait went off to help the diggers. I wonder who's my next watcher...

* * *

><p>"This entire digging thing is shit. What the fuck would I use a mop for?" Cid yelled out. When he had discovered a tough looking pole weapon he was almost ecstatic, only to find out years ago it was a mop and not as good as the dragon spear he had procured at Wutai.<p>

"Stop complaining and just keep diggin," Barret yelled out.

"This sucks, I hate digging," Yuffie whined.

"Is that it, or is it because you haven't gotten anything?" Nanaki joked. Most of the team had already found old elixirs and other odd items. Yuffie was the only one to not find anything.

"It's not fair! Vince found that awesome gun; I want to find cool stuff. The only one I can take cool stuff from is Nathan, and he isn't here."

"Well it's your turn to watch him." Cloud said. Yuffie huffed and went to the tent. He was resting at the moment, Cloud sighed. At least this gave everyone time to relax while they waited for Nate to heal. It surprised him to hear why Nate wanted to protect Aeris... but it was true. Cloud thought himself a liability. Nate knew that feeling too, that lingering possibility they would hurt one of their friends and go too far. Nate knew they were both risks and took precautions. Cloud couldn't blame him; after all, Cloud had admitted not too long ago he was afraid of himself too. But he was going to keep going. After all everyone already said they would support him.

(Two days before)

The group was sitting in the large tent. The unconscious body of Nathan was on one of the beds while everyone was standing around.

"So... why did you leave?" Cloud asked Aeris.

"I did it for all for you guys." She said, looking at the rest of the group. "I wanted to make sure you were all safe, I couldn't bear the thought of any of you getting hurt."

"Why didn't you let us help? You didn't have to go alone." Tifa asked.

"If I made a sacrifice for you all, none of you would have to die. I wanted you all to be safe..." She looked over at Nate's body. "But I guess it was never going to work, and Nate almost died."

"It's not your fault." Vincent responded. "Sephiroth is a powerful tactician. He knew when to strike and how. It was by sheer luck that he took your blow."

"We all can't make the right decisions. We can only look back and learn from them. At least no one was killed." Nanaki said. Aeris had a sad smile.

"Everyone, listen to me." Cloud called. Everyone looked at him.

"I am Cloud, ex-SOLDIER, born in Nibelheim. I came to settle up with Sephiroth. I came here of my own free will... or so I thought... However…" He hesitated, trying to think of the right words. "To tell you the truth, I'm afraid of myself. There is a part of me I don't understand, that part that made me give the Black Materia to Sephiroth." Instantly the tension in the room rose. Everyone had been ignoring that detail for a time now.

"If you hadn't stopped me, Aeris would have..." He shook his head. "There's a person inside of me, a person who is not really me...That's why I should quit this journey, before I do something terrible." He looked away, fist shaking in frustration.

"But I am going. He destroyed my home town, he almost killed Aeris and Nathan, and is trying to destroy the planet... I will never forgive Sephiroth." He finally looked up at everyone.

"I have a favor to ask of you. Will you all come with me? To save me from doing something terrible?"

"Cloud...you may have had problems. But we are all here for you. We all chose to help you on this journey and we won't back out now." Tifa said.

"We got your back. No matter what," Barret added.

"I'll keep helping you as much as I can from now on." Aeris said.

"You can't kill him alone, you will need our help." Vincent chimed.

"I can't wait to whup Sephiroth, he'll never see it coming!" Yuffie smiled.

"I said it before; you're all crazy and stupid. But what fun would it be traveling if y'all weren't," Cid said.

"Don't count me out!" Cait yelled, jumping on his Mog's head.

"Then we still have a chance. We must get the Black materia back before Sephiroth uses it. When Nate is better we head out north through the snowy fields."

* * *

><p>I groaned. But not from pain. Yuffie had finally left and she doted over me whenever I made the slightest sound. But it was funny to see her worried a little bit. Now I had Vincent as my last watcher until everyone decided to go to bed. Most of the time it was pure silence. It wasn't unwelcome, but it would get a little awkward. I couldn't help but fidget when he would look in my direction for just a second and turn back.<p>

"I don't understand," I heard him mumble.

"What?"

"Why nearly die for her? You don't love her, you don't have any connections. You don't gain anything..." I raised an eyebrow.

"Vincent, are you okay?"

"It doesn't make sense why you took the hit... why did you do it?" He looked at me. Even with all of the questions he had the same passive face. Him asking me this though reminded me he was a Turk for years. He must still be in that mindset.

"Vincent... you don't need a reason to help people." I stated. "I know the logical kind of person. You were taught to distrust everything, look underneath everything. But sometimes Vincent... you don't have to think about what you gain from doing something. You don't need a reason to help people."

"...You are an enigma River. Your deduction skills are almost on par with Turks, discovering the cat's identity." I panicked when he mentioned that. It was the last thing on my mind that Vincent knew I called Cait Reeve.

"You fight smart. You are helping this group with little to gain. I wonder why..." He glanced at me, but then looked away.

"I acknowledge I won't understand you... or many of the others in this group. I am different from you all. You're all too trusting of each other...but maybe there isn't a secret lurking in every corner."

"So... you suspected me?" I asked. He nodded.

"I don't care now. When I kill Hojo I will leave. But seeing how you all interact, it's... odd."

"It may be a confusing thing for you Vincent. But we all have something in common. It's how we all are able to get along." He looked down when I said that.

"I doubt any of you have something in common with a monster." I flinched. Vincent still blamed himself for everything that had happened to Lucrecia. I do hope he forgives himself somehow. Getting to know him... as much as I could know without him fully describing his past, he was a decent person.

"Maybe you could tell me about the times before you were experimented on... before you became what you are." I wasn't given a response for a long time. It was almost night when his shift ended and he went off to his bed to sleep.

"Perhaps... I may tell you." I heard as he walked off. I looked back at the tent top. It didn't take long for me to get drowsy. It was easy to fall asleep. I hope that I can get everyone to trust one another. After all, the smallest change in how everyone views each other could be the defining factor for teamwork in the future, especially when it came to killing Hojo and Sephiroth.


	31. Chapter 31

A/N Late post I know I am trying to cut down, but my beta reader is currently in the process of moving so you can't blame either of us...blame yourselves for all of the anticipation you built up yourself.

Its cool though, not much news on my end...guess we can just get on with this then.

* * *

><p>Ch 31<p>

"Is everyone ready?" Cloud asked. A unanimous nod of heads was his answer. "Alright then, let's go."

"Nathan, are you sure you don't need another day of rest?" Aeris asked as we started walking.

"It's okay; I hardly feel a thing anymore." The worst I had now was the occasional muscle twitch. "Although when I feel stuff its kinda... numb I think."

"I wouldn't be surprised if your nerves are a little more redundant now. You damaged your nerves well enough," Nanaki said.

"Wait... that means... this is actually a plus!" I smiled. Out of the corner of my eye Yuffie made a disgusted look at me.

"How the hell does frying your own ass count as a plus?" Cid asked.

"I can't feel pain as much; I can fight longer because the fatigue takes longer to respond..."

"Don't expect too much. You'll only feel a little less pain. It isn't as if you are able to brush off another stab, it will still hurt immensely," Vincent said, ruining what good I could think of about for my condition.

"I'm still surprised. You took that like a champ! How did you do it?" Cait asked. I thought for a bit.

"Well I have been drinking all of the sources I've been coming across. I do feel better than I was before drinking them." It takes time, yes, but I always feel just a little more clear-headed, faster, stronger, and tougher, my magic seemed a little more potent. I think the only ones that didn't seem to help were the Luck Sources; I never feel a change with those.

"You drink all of those? Eww," Yuffie said.

"What?" I asked.

"That's like taking a bunch of drugs to get better." She said. I would agree but it isn't like I'm taking mega steroids. I have not had an adverse reaction yet to any of the sources. They're like the miracle drugs Earth needed. You get stronger without putting something in you that causes problems.

"I never heard of anyone suffering from using sources too much." Barret said.

Cloud decided to explain. "Because people can't really buy them. Shinra rarely makes them available to the public anymore and the few you can get cost too much to really be worth the enhancement, Nathan's probably taken more than any other regular citizen, possibly much more than someone in their army." Oh so that's how MP's are strong, they drink what I drink. We kept talking as we walked through the sleeping forest, Tifa looking very nervous along the way.

"Do we still have the harp? I don't want to get lost." Tifa asked.

"We don't need it now." Aeris said, confusing Tifa. "The forest keeps intruders from the city; Ancients built the city, so they aren't considered intruders. Stay by me and you won't get lost." Huh, so that's how Aeris got in without the harp.

"Where should we go? Didn't we explore damn near the entire city?" Barret asked.

"We didn't explore one road. It had a broken building at the end but near the top of it there was some kind of cave. That is our ticket out possibly." Cloud said. We traversed the sleeping forest and got to the City of Ancients in record time. It was around noon when we got there, so we kept going. We eventually reached the cavern and saw the large spiky structure and a cave at the top.

"And we get up there how?" Yuffie asked.

"We jump." Cloud said, already taking the first few steps in a couple of hops. I went up a few and spied another chest on the side. I jumped over and opened it.

"Hey Cid, I think you might like this." I pulled out the spear and threw it to him. He dropped his old one and smiled.

"Finally, something decent!" I smiled. I still remember Cid complaining about finding a mop at the dig site. I knew it was technically better but it would be too hard to convince Cid that an old broken mop was better than a sharp and pointy spear with materia slots. The group hopped, skipped, and jumped until we were at the top of the cavern and going through the tunnel. It had some rainbow looking textures and with what sunlight it let through, brightened the room with different colors. It was a nice sight, but I still like the Mythril Mines better.

"How are we getting up now?" Barret asked when we got to the walls with large cracks in them.

"I guess we have to free climb." Tifa said. I heard a couple of the others groan. This was going to be murder on anyone who didn't have gloves and a ton of weight. So Aeris, Nanaki, Barret, and Cait would all have the short end of this. Thank god Yuffie gave me my gauntlets...wait, a materias missing...

"Yuffie, can I have my fire back." I held out my hand.

"Dang it." She whispered. I smirked. I put the materia back in place and started to use the cracks to climb up. I got close to the top and looked around the edge, noticing the three chests.

"You know, does anyone else wonder how some of these chests got here, or why they even contain stuff?"

"Nope, more for me." Yuffie said below me and started jumping from ledge to ledge, taking what items were inside as well as the purple materia that I later found out was a Magic Plus. As we got closer to the top I noticed it was getting colder as we neared the exit. When everyone was at the top, Yuffie found another chest only to look a little sick when she looked inside.

"What'd you find?" Barret asked, tired from having to use one hand and jamming his gun hand into the wall. Yuffie took out the bottle and threw it towards me. Another Power Source.

"Sweetness." I opened the bottle and downed the drink. I made a happy sigh and looked over to see Yuffie looking a little green.

"So I drink this stuff, it's probably made from that all natural herb and vitamins crap. Stop acting like I'm drinking raw Mako." Saying that, she got a little greener and went to the edge of the wall to throw up. I snickered a little but stopped when I got outside. Looking around, I smiled.

"Hey guys, look." Everyone came out and they're reactions made me smile. The entire field was covered in snow for what appeared to be miles. No trees, no grass, there wasn't a speck of green in the place. The mountains around us were covered in blankets of snow. I took a deep breath of air before exhaling happily. We are defiantly in a higher altitude; I feel like I'm taking normal breaths again, it almost feels like Colorado... I missed that feeling.

"Fuck its cold." Were the first words I heard. I looked back to see Cid warming up his arms.

"I know it looks nice but we don't have time. Keep moving." Cloud said. Everyone started trudging through the snow. It was about a foot deep, allowing me to be satisfied with the crunch of freshly broken snow.

"We have to find a way around the mountains. Trying to go over will take too long." Cloud said to the group. For some reason I wasn't at the back of the group anymore. I was actually walking with Cloud at the front. The only other person up with us was Vincent. Everyone else seemed to be slowing down. I could hear some heavy breathing. When it came evening we stopped and I saw that everyone behind us was very winded.

"What's wrong with you guys?" I asked.

"It's hard to breath man... it's like I ran not too long ago." Barret said.

"I'm used to grass and rocks, not snow." Nanaki said, lying down. I realized that everyone else was from lower altitudes so they needed more air, and were used to flat or jagged ground instead of travel impeding snow. Cloud was able to get through all this since Nibelheim is essentially in the mountains, and Vincent slept there for thirty years so his lungs adjusted. I wondered why Tifa wasn't up with us only to see her and Yuffie hugging themselves and shaking.

"W-why d-idn't we bring ja-jackets?" Yuffie said, teeth chattering. I forgot those two were the least clothed out of the entire group.

"I don't see what the big deal is." Cait said. Earning a glare from most of the group. I bet everyone wishes his gears would freeze... I wonder if that is possible.

"Set up camp. They need to adjust." Vincent said, interrupting my thoughts. I opened my pack and started setting up a tent with Cloud's help.

"I'm surprised you are able to keep up Nate." Cloud said. I shrugged.

"Mideel is already tough jungle terrain, sure it ain't snow, but once you get used to one tough bit, the rest gets easier."

"Makes sense. The weather is tropical though, how are you taking the cold?"

"My nerves were shot remember? Snow numbing me doesn't feel so different, you see? I'm prepared." That, and living in Colorado's bipolar winter does help.

"I know. Once you get used to tough work, a different kind only hampers you a little." he had a small smirk.

"Exactly what I was thinking. Us country boys gotta stick together, right Cloud?" I looked up to see him with a very far off look.

"Cloud?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Sorry. You reminded me of..." He was about to say but something stopped him. He groaned and held his head.

"Are you okay?" I asked, stopping so I could prepare if he fell.

"I'm fine, just a headache." He waved me off and continued setting up his tent. Who did I sound like? ...was it Zack? Now that I think about it, he would say something like that...

Eventually the tents were set and we sat around a fire and ate. Nobody was really talkative, then again, the wind picked up and the most talkative people, who were Yuffie and Aeris, were both shivering from the drop in temperature.

"If we don't find a village soon, so help me..."

"Cid, be a man and take the cold." Barret said.

"I can take that shit just fine. The fucking cold and wind keep blowing out my cigarettes even in the tent. Its pissing me off that I can't get a decent smoke out here." I laughed a little.

"They are bad for you." Said Aeris, now curled up in her sleeping bag, Cid just snorted.

"So does anyone know where we should go?" Nanaki interjected.

"I remember there being a village in the mountains. Icicle Inn it was called, mostly just a place for people to vacation though." Cait informed.

"What kind of dummy wants to vacation here?" Yuffie said, in a similar state to Aeris.

"I hear snowboarding and skiing is becoming popular these days." I say.

"I heard that too." Tifa agreed.

"Alright everyone get some sleep. I want us in that village by tomorrow." Cloud said. Everyone nodded and went into their respective tents.

The next day went better for everyone now that they were warmed up a little and traveling again. It wasn't until late noon though that we were able to reach Icicle Inn.

Much like every other village, it was much larger than the game portrayed it to be. But it didn't have that same feeling all of the others gave off. The other villages we went to had troubled pasts with Shinra and had an air to them. Knowing that Icicle Inn was actually a place where one of the very few good people in Shinra worked was comforting.

"I'll pick groups of two. Pick a location and start asking questions. Sephiroth can't be too far." Cloud said. When everyone drew straws, I was surprised to see I was grouped with Cid, I wasn't surprised when the first place he wanted to go was the bar, in fact I laughed.

"I want some decent hot tea, and make it quick I'm thirsty." He more or less demanded from the bartender.

"We're supposed to be asking around dude," I said sitting next to him.

"When I am good and ready. Just ask around here, I bet we'll hear something." I shook my head and looked around the bar. I got up and started walking around.

"Dude, do you know what the Cetra was?" I looked over to see three guys sitting around and talking.

"What was the Cetra? ...oh yeah, they're the same as the Ancients right?" One responded to the other.

"Yeah, did you know a Cetra lived here a while back? Her name was Ifalna, and she knew a lotta things..."

"What do you mean?" The third asked.

"I heard she was abducted by Shinra and taken somewhere." The other two at the table looked shocked.

"Shinra and the Ancients... I smell something fishy."

"Excuse me," I called out. All three turn towards me. "I couldn't help but overhear, an actual Ancient used to live here?"

"Yeah, I moved here around that time," Said the first man.

"Do you know where she lived?" I asked. He scratched his head.

"Wasn't her house next to that sleepy old guy's?" He thought out loud.

"The one with all those bright lights, right?" The second asked.

"Yeah, that's the one. I think she lived there."

"Thanks, have a nice evening." I come back up to Cid. "An Ancient lived here at one point; maybe it will be useful to see her house."

"Dang, all I heard was there's some snow bitch out there that hates hot springs." So all he talked to was the bartender. Well at least he didn't sit around.

"Come on four eyes, let's go tell everyone else." I sighed, but followed. Back outside we saw everyone start to get back into groups. I also noticed that Tifa and Yuffie were now wearing some jackets and... Are those leg warmers? Seriously? It would so much more worth it to get pants and they settle for leg warmers? ...Sigh, I will never understand other people's thoughts sometimes.

"So what did everyone get?" Cloud asked.

"The slope is the only way down, every other way is blocked. So you need something to take you down." Barret said.

"I was told we needed a map to get around, I got one." Yuffie held it up. She probably just took it from that one guy who was an explorer around here.

"Cloud and I didn't find much." Tifa said.

"I got a snowboard, so I'm prepared for when we have to leave." He held it up. It looked pretty sweet. "In fact we'll leave tomorrow, so I want everyone to have something to use to go down the slope." Everyone nodded.

"We heard that Shinra has been spotted around here." Nanaki said for himself and Vincent.

"We didn't get anything." Cait said while Aeris nodded.

"I found out something interesting. A Cetra used to live here." Everyone focused on me now.

"Another Cetra? Are you sure?" Aeris asked. I nodded.

"The guys I heard said she lived in the house next to the item store. Her name was Ifalna."

"Mother?" Aeris gasped. Everyone looked shocked at her outburst.

"Your mother lived here?" Tifa asked.

"I never knew... I didn't know this was her home..."

"They said Shinra came at some point and took her." I added.

"We should investigate, maybe we'll find clues." Cloud said. Surprisingly Aeris started for the house and led most of the way. When we got inside, we found it had been abandoned for some time. There were several dusty machines around, a small table with a book on it, and a stairwell going down.

"Look around, maybe we'll find something." Cloud ordered. I went to the machine closest to the door and pressed the largest button on it. Suddenly the room was illuminated by some light from an odd opening in the ceiling.

"Let there be light." I said simply. I went downstairs to see the bed with books scattered around it and a dresser off to the side. I decided to look at one of the books.

"Mako condescension and Materia theory, whoever was here must have been a scientist or something. These kinds of books are too high level for the average person."

Aeris pondered. "Mother was smart, but not a genius. These books are for someone else."

"Hey guys, I found something." Cait said upstairs. Coming up he pointed to one of the machines and flipped a switch. It had a list of videos with varying names.

"Maybe they have something we can use." Cait said.

"Play original crisis." Aeris said. The machine started operating and a video feed soon came up. It showed a man in a lab coat working on the same machine and a woman with long brown hair in a red dress.

"That's her..." Aeris whispered.

"Camera's ready!" The man in the video said. He turned to Ifalna. "Then, Ifalna, please tell us about the Cetra." She nodded.

"2000 years ago, our ancestors, the Cetra, Heard the cries of the Planet. The first ones to discover the Planet's wound were the Cetra at Knowlespole."

"Tell us Ifalna, what is this land called Knowlespole?"

"Knowlespole refers to this area. The Cetra then began a Planet-reading... It's like having a conversation with the Planet. It said something fell from the sky making a large wound. Thousands of Cetra pulled together, trying to heal the wound. But because of the severity, it could only heal itself over many years."

"Do the Ancients, or rather the Cetra, have special powers to heal the planet?"

"No, it's not that kind of power. The lifeforce of all living things on this planet become energy. The Cetra tried desperately to cultivate the land so as not to diminish the needed energy."

"Even here, so close to North Cave, the snow never melts. Is it the planet's energy is gathered here to heal its injury?"

"Yes, the energy that was needed to heal the planet withered away the land... Then the Planet... It tried to persuade the Cetra to leave Knowlespole, but..."

"Ifalna... let's take a break."

"I'm fine... When the Cetra prepared to leave the land they loved... that's when it appeared. It looked like our dead mothers and brothers. Showing us specters of our past."

"Who is the person that appeared at North Cave?"

"That's when the one that injured the planet, or the 'Crisis From The Sky', as we called it, came... at first it approached as a friend, then deceived them, and finally... gave them a virus. The Cetra soon went mad, turning into monsters." She fell to the ground.

"Then, just like the ones at Knowlespole, it approached the other Cetra clans, infecting them with the virus."

"You don't look well... let's call it a day."

The video cut. Everyone was just as silent as when the video started.

"So the Planet's been injured already?" Asked Tifa. Everyone seemed to agree.

"I still can't believe my mother used to live here... but who is that man?"

"Professor Gast, former head of the Shinra Science Department." Everyone turned towards Vincent.

"You knew him?" I asked, just as surprised as everyone else.

"I was his bodyguard when assigned. He was one of the most brilliant men that Shinra had."

"What happened to him?" Nanaki asked.

"Hojo killed him; at least I suspect he did. There was never any conclusive evidence. He then became the new head of Science... that was many years ago." He explained.

"I think we should watch the next video." Aeris said. The second one on the list played.

"Ifalna, if you could comment on the thing called 'Weapon'?"

"Yes, the one the professor mistook for a Cetra... was named Jenova. That is the 'Crisis From the Sky'. The Planet knew it had to destroy Jenova... you see, as long as Jenova exists, the Planet will never be able to fully heal itself."

"Back then, Weapon was a weapon the Planet produced of its own will?"

"Yes, but there is no record of Weapon ever being used. A small number of Cetra defeated Jenova and confined it. The Planet produced the Weapon, but it didn't need it."

"So the Weapon no longer exists on this Planet?"

"Weapon cannot vanish, it is hidden somewhere in the Planet. Even though Jenova is confined , it can still come back to life at some point. The Planet hasn't even fully healed. It is still watching Jenova."

"Where is Weapon?"

"I don't know, I can't hear the voice of the Planet that well. Times have changed...that Planet is watching closely."

"Thank you Ifalna, that will be all for today." The video feed was cut again.

"So Jenova isn't an Ancient?" Barret asked.

"I kinda figured that out when Aeris didn't turn into a giant demonic mass of flesh Barret." I said. He seemed annoyed but ignored me.

"So he was the one that thought Jenova was an Ancient." Nanaki stated.

"He was told otherwise afterwards," Cait said.

"What are in the confidential files?" Aeris asked. Cloud pressed a few buttons until the file opened with videos labeled 'Daughter's records'.

"He had a daughter?" Cloud asked. He looked towards Vincent who just shrugged.

"I don't remember him even having a lover. But that begs the question, who is his daughter?"

"Let's find out." Yuffie said. She pressed the button, but no video came up. The audio worked fine however.

"What are you doing prof... I mean honey?" Came Ifalna's voice.

"I'm thinking of taping it on video, but it's not working right..." Gast replied.

"What are you going to tape? Is there something I haven't mentioned?"

"No, that's not it. I'm going to record my beautiful daughter. When she's sleeping... her face looks like an angel."

"First we have to decide on her name. You can make the video later." Ifalna said.

"I've already decided. Her name will be Aeris. That's that." Everyone held their breath at the name Gast mentioned.

"You are so selfish. But it is a good name." Ifalna giggled. "Yes a good name, considering it came from that forgetful head of yours." The video stopped. I looked over to see Aeris looking at the ground.

"I never knew who my father was...Mom always told me he was smart, but forgetful. He was kind and humble... I'm happy I get to know who he was." A few tears ran down her face. Cloud decided to play the last file. This time it had the video working.

"Another video? We just got through taping."

"Please don't say it that way. It's our lovely daughter, both yours and mine! Don't you want to capture her childhood on tape?"Gast said.

"If you keep doting over her like that, she will never grow up to be strong. Aeris is different from the other children. I wonder what dangers await her..."

"Never say that. I will protect you and Aeris no matter what! You and Aeris are my treasures; I will never let you go!"

"I feel so much better darling... If I hadn't met you..." Both got close and were about to embrace when a loud knock was heard.

"Who could that... I was about to... How dare they intrude on our private time together!"

"I will send them away." Ifalna walked to the door only to run back to Gast.

"It's them!"

"I've been searching for you Ifalna. Or should I say, Cetra! Long time no see professor Gast." Everyone was infuriated when Hojo came into the video.

"Hojo...how did you know?" Gast gasped.

"Believe me I had to turn over a stone or two to find you... Two years I waited. That's how much I wanted this new sample."

"New sample? You don't mean Aeris!" The MP's with Hojo pointed their guns at Gast.

"Aeris? ...what a nice name." Hojo just laughed. Gast shouted at him.

"That's it! I'm severing all ties with Shinra! Hojo, please leave." Suddenly, Ifalna knelt before Hojo.

"Please, Aeris has nothing to do with it! All you want is me, right?" Ifalna pleaded. Hojo shook his head.

"I need all of you for the experiment. You understand don't you, Professor Gast? We can change the future of the Planet!"

"Don't worry Ifalna, I'll take care of this." Gast hugged his wife. Hojo sighed.

"Please don't put up a fight. I don't want to damage my precious sample... hmmm" Hojo looked in the direction of the camera. It sent shivers down my spine how it looked like he knew we were watching.

"An interesting camera. Guard, destroy it." The MP fired and we lost video feed, but the audio was intact.

"Be careful with her!" He laughed out. Signs of struggle could be heard in the background.

"Ifalna, take Aeris and run!" A single gunshot ringed through the speakers. Ifalna's cries could be heard.

"Oh and don't forget the child! ...what is this? The Ancients? Weapon? Yes a mountain of treasure! Thank you professor! The last video went down. Aeris had even more tears now than before.

"That Hojo fucks everything up." Cid put bluntly, I couldn't agree more.

"Let's just get some rest. Be ready tomorrow." Everyone started to file out of the room. I had forgotten Aeris never got to see the videos, so it's only natural she would start to cry knowing her father and mother were killed by the same person.

I went over to the item store next door; I needed something to pick me up after that.

"Grandpa, you have a visitor!" A little girl next to the shop owner said, hitting him in the arm, waking him from his nap.

"Ugh, oh welcome! What do you need?"

"Do you have any kind of candy?" I asked. As simple as candy is, it's my one comfort food.

"We have some in stock." He pulled a few things out from under the counter. It was the same brands I had been eating, so I bought a few. When I was about to leave, I caught something from the corner of my eye.

"Is that...?"

"Huh?" he looked over to a shelf. "Yes that's one of our towns own brands. Quite a few kids love the stuff, even my granddaughter." I threw my gil on the counter.

"I'll take ten." When I got the first can, I popped it open and savored the flavor.

"How you guys can make cola this good I will never know." I had completely forgotten the cola from Gaia was from Icicle Inn, but then again Yuffie told me back at Costa Del Sol. Oh well, I get a tasty drink before we leave for the Crater... speaking of Costa Del Sol, do I still have most of my junk from there? What's in my backpack?

I started rummaging through the pack. I had most of the rings that the team came across... Come on, I have it somewhere I had no reason to throw... There it is! ...Damn, its gunna take all night to get this up... Better start then.

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><p>The team was starting up the slope. Cloud had made sure that everyone had gotten something to go down the slope with. Aeris had calmed down since her discovery of who her father was; in fact she seemed happier in a sense. Right now all of them were going to the slope with their sets of transportation.<p>

It was funny seeing the different choices everyone made. Vincent had bought a snowboard much like Cloud's which surprised nearly everyone. He didn't comment about it though. Barret had paired with Red and bought a sled big enough for the both of them along with Aeris and Cid getting ones for themselves. Tifa and Yuffie had opted to use skis. Cait had said he would use his mog's body to slide down . Nathan had come up to everyone out of breath and holding an inner tube of all things.

"Nathan, where did you get that?" Yuffie asked.

"I had it... since Costa... Del sol. I knew I was gunna use it someday... so let's go down that slope." He said, finally catching his breath. All of them started going up the incline when a man stopped them.

"It's dangerous down there; I don't think you should go."

"We're fine, we can handle ourselves." Cloud said.

"Are you sure? You can get lost."

"We are perfectly fine sir." Cloud said more sternly than before.

"Okay I wish you lu... Wait, who are those guys over there? ...Uh oh, looks like trouble." Cloud turned to see the line of MP's in blue with one of those dark blue suits running at them.

"Hold on!" Nathan groaned. Cloud could see now it was Elena. He sighed and waited for the rookie Turk to catch up, he wanted to just go down the slope, but he didn't want bullets flying past them at the moment.

"I... finally... caught up..." She said breathing heavily with her hands on her knees. "I won't let you down there!" Cloud just shrugged.

"What's down there?" Maybe she would slip on information like before.

"It's a secret! But that doesn't matter." Suddenly the two MP's point their guns at the group. "You'll pay for what you did to my boss!"

"You mean... Tseng? That wasn't us, that was Sephiroth." Cloud tried to reason, the blond girl just shook her head.

"Nice try liar, you can't fool me."

"Oh come on, I healed the bastard to avoid this!" Nathan yelled. Cloud would have laughed at Nathan's hopefulness, but now was not the time.

"I'm not lying, Sephiroth attacked him."

"Don't try to act innocent!" Cloud rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh man." How was he going to get everyone out of this one?

"Looks like talking alone won't do it. You're going to have to feel some pain! There's no way you can avoid my punch." Cloud saw Elena rail back her fist, she launched it at him only for Cloud to move off to the side and let her fall forward. The saddest part was that they were on the slope already, so she started rolling down the hill.

"E-Elena?" One of the MP's yelled before both ran after her. Cloud could hear Nathan and Yuffie laughing hard at the display.

"Shinra's here, so Sephiroth must be close by. Let's get ready guys." Cloud said. Everyone set up there items and looked down the mountain. None of them could clearly see the bottom.

"I'm starting to think there might be another way down." Tifa said.

"Nope, we have to go down this way." Barret said. Tifa sighed before looking back down.

"So, how are we doing this?" Asked Aeris. "Do we all count to three, or you yell go, or should we-"

"Why is everyone being such a chicken?" Nathan said. Cloud could agree, he just wanted to go down the hill as well and get everything over with.

"It's going to be a fun run, come on guys, let's go!" Nathan jumped into his inner tube and started sliding down the slope, laughing while going down. Everyone looked at Cloud who just smirked.

"Just go with it." He said, then started sliding himself. One by one, everybody went down the slope. Cloud looked around to see Red hanging onto Barret tightly before Vincent soon passed him.

"This is so fun!" Yuffie yelled, gaining speed with her skis.

"Onward!" Cait yelled, riding his giant mog on it stomach, holding onto its arms to steer.

"I want to go again!" Nathan yelled up front.

It wasn't long before things went wrong.

"We're coming into a turn, make a right!" Cloud yelled. Almost everyone nodded when he noticed Nathan trying to shift his tube with his weight, only for it to flop back down.

"Cloud! We have a problem, I can't steer!" He yelled. Cloud groaned. He went along side Nathan's tube and tried to push while riding down. But it was too late and both were sent through a completely different turn than the rest of the group.

"Shit Cloud we missed the turn!" Nathan yelled.

"We can still catch up just-" Before he could finish he was nearly rammed into by Tifa.

"What is happening?"

"Everyone is trying to turn back, but they keep going the wrong way!" Tifa yelled.

"Aw shit!" Nathan said. Soon enough Cloud was separated from the two and now turned onto a slope that had Barret and Red on one sled and Cid trying to slow down with his spear.

"Where the hell is everyone?" Cid yelled.

"Just keep trying to stay in groups!" However another turn came up and Cid used his spear at the wrong time and went down it. Cloud cursed and looked back at Barret and Red only to see them nearly miss a tree and go down another part of the hill. Cloud looked around to find only himself on this part of the hill. Cloud was sure everyone would meet up at the bottom, but now everyone was on completely different paths and only a few would end up in certain locations.

The whole group was lost now...they were all going to have to brave the snowy plains without certainty today.

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><p>Poll time! you have three votes on my page, who gets paired with Nate? any other pairs can be personally requested through your reviews, poll will close late thirday night! see you later.<p> 


	32. Chapter 32

A/N Finally i got this out!. Yo guys i know everyone has been waiting for this chapter for almost two weeks now. I had the biggest case of writers block yet and i just couldn't push myself to finish this part until today. But now i am passed this, you guys get a new chapter, and everybody is happy.

okay quick announcement time, my beta reader Saria19 has started her on SI called Between Worlds. Its got its own style and you all should check it out.

Also another auther that i have an alert two that has commented on my story is Matalvis who makes one of my favorite crossovers The wildcard. Why do i like it? because it is a fallout 3/mass effect crossover, which i have said this site is lacking. So now i have like two authors I'm subscribed to like this, so I'm pumped.

also poll results. When i closed it down it was an actual split decision. So to be fair I flipped a coin like seven times to see who Nate would be paired with.

last announcement, Stranger from the sky has now surpassed the 200 review threshold, hurray!

Well enjoy the chapter, because i am so happy to have ended it! plus i added a new attack to Nathans arsenal. Read on to see!

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><p>Ch 32<p>

"Fuck...my head..." I lifted myself out of the snow. Shivering a bit, I looked around only to find myself in a forest while a blizzard was passing over... just great, I couldn't just be separated, I had to be trapped in a blizzard too.

"HEY!" I yelled out. Looking around I saw my deflated inner tube. Can't use that anymore. I looked up towards the slope to see it was about fifteen feet above me.

"So that's where the headache came from." I rubbed my head. It was still throbbing. But there's no time for that. Everyone's probably scattered, so we need to group together before we all pass out from being stuck out here. The group is three people when the game scatters you, it is going to be hell when it's all ten of us.

"HELLOOOOOOOO!" I called out again, only for the echo to respond back. I don't know how far everyone is from each other. How many areas were there? There were four... but then again someone could have been caught in the trees of the slope.

"Well standing here thinking isn't going to get me anywhere." Thank god I at least bought a decent jacket... Should have bought some wind breaker pants, these ones from Wutai don't stand up to wind all that well. I think my best bet would be to circle the slope, I might run into most of the group before anyone tries to get through the blizzard on their own. At least I have my travel pack and my Genji Gloves didn't fall off. I have decent materia on me, if I can remember enough of the map we just need to head north I believe till we find the cabin.

"I could use a little help here!" I heard, it sounded far away but not by much. Booking it I ran in the direction of the call. I heard a few growls and started to run faster until behind a few trees I saw what looked like a giant scorpion centipede attacking a very irate ninja.

"Why won't you go down!" She threw her shuriken but the insect twisted enough to avoid the weapon and try to strike her with its large pincers. She jumped back and flashed an ice spell but the insect ran through the sharp shards and attacked again. It was able to slice part of her arm as she ducked to avoid being cut up more when I jumped in. I attacked with my fire which caused the giant bug to screech and curl up on the ground, burnt to a crisp from my higher level spell.

"About time you got here!" She yelled at me.

"Yuffie I just woke up from crashing my inner tube and saved you from a giant snow ant thing, cut me some slack." I replied heatedly. She huffed but before I spoke I realized what she said.

"Yuffie, how long have you been walking around?"

"I've ran around here for thirty minutes and I haven't found anyone but you." I groaned and fell to my knees when she said that. She came up and gave me a hand before she started asking questions.

"Hey I found you, what's so bad about that?"

"Yuffie, I just woke up. That means for half an hour, everyone else has been walking around too. I wanted to circle the base of the slope to find everyone but now that's out of the question." By now everyone else has been walking around too. Shit, nothing works for anyone in video games. I am a little pissed that they follow the karma logic that the designers made, even though I'm in a real place now where shit shouldn't go down so much.

"So we can't find anyone? ...NOOOOOOOOO" I covered my ears when she fell to her knees yelling.

"I don't wanna die in the cold; I'm too young to die anyways! I wanted to do so much! I never even got to take all the materia!" I damn near face palmed when she said that last part.

"Yuffie, stop being dramatic, we can make this, I just need to think... what materia do you have?" She showed me her bangle and shuriken. A level two ice, the elemental she got from me which is still on its first level, level two barrier, steal, magic plus, sense, manipulate, and throw. Damn it, no restore. Well maybe we can work with this.

"What are you doing?" I took her hand and reached into her pack. I remember she got this from the Chekhov fight in Wutai.

"Just hold still, this will help you in the cold." I don't get how no one thought of the ideas that I do.

"Nathan I like the-oh." She stopped complaining when she felt what I was working towards. "How did you do that?"

"It's an ice ring, add it to your armor and you'll be immune to ice damage. Hence, it makes it so in your case you're more resistant to cold weather." She almost gaped at my explanation.

"Then again, I still question why you got leg warmers instead of pants." I added in afterthought. She shook her head.

"Whatever. What are we going to do?"

"I need to take a look at the map; maybe we'll find some kind of landmark."

"I gave it to Cloud."

"You what?"

"Cloud's the leader so I gave it to him." I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing.

"The one time I hope you're selfish and... it's okay, I can remember enough of the map... hopefully... maybe... probably." Okay it's fuzzy after a month but I can remember the general landmarks. Damn I'm going to have to write down what I can remember when this is all over. I can't have my memory causing problems in the future.

"Come on." I grabbed her wrist and started heading north east. We are in the forest so... area one? I never got the names. We would hit the hot springs if I am right. Then circle around and head due north.

I can only hope everybody's okay.

* * *

><p>"Damn, Darkness, how the hell can you take all this?" Cid had been walking around for five minutes before he got lucky enough to run into Vincent. He had been hit by Barret at some point and ended up at the bottom to find a sign with a map of the Great Glacier. He had been trying to memorize the thing before he was surprised by the crimson cloaked man told him he had already done it himself.<p>

"I would prefer you didn't call me that." Vincent responded.

"Still, you act like nothin's happening and the winds pickin up." Cid said, grumpy from having already relinquished cigarettes till after getting through.

"It is insulated."

"God damn it I could use one of those right now." Vincent sighed. Cid was possibly the loudest out of anyone on the team next to Barret and on occasion Nathan when they would argue.

"Be my guest." Cid was surprised when Vincent started unbuckling his cloak and held his hand out with it.

"If you're offering." Cid quickly took the cloak and put it on only to suddenly feel a lot of extra weight added on to him and make him stumble into the snow. He cursed when he looked up to see Vincent with a passive face. At least he was smart enough not to laugh.

"What the fuck is this thing made of?" Vincent took the cloak back with one hand and clasped it back on before walking.

"It has weight considering it is completely bullet proof, as well as resistant to some magic, and as I stated insulated. Hojo thought it would be humorous to give me this when I was turned into what I am."

"The fuck you carry that around for I will never guess, and where the hell are you leading me?" Vincent shook his head.

"We are heading up this hill. The map states there is a cabin north west of it. And there is a possibility we will find everyone else with the higher vantage point."

"Can't we go around? I don't want to waste energy going up a damn hill, Darkness."

"Why do you insist on calling me that?"

"I can't call muscle head that or he'll try to kick my ass, plus you're the darkest bastard on the team. You're always just huffing around like the worlds dead and crap. It's disturbing, so the name fits." Cid said with a smile. Showing Vincent he would be stubborn enough to continue.

"I suppose you have nicknames for the whole team." Vincent asked.

"Nah, just you and whatever I can call the two brats on the team. It's funny as hell seeing the girl yell and try to prove I'm wrong. Nathan doesn't give a crap so I let loose."

"That is an odd way of showing endearment to your teammates." Vincent noted.

"No one's bitched me out about it yet." Well Tifa yelled at him for being too brash but that wasn't important. Cid decided to go back to the original topic. "There better be a cave on top of this hill though, this cold is a bitch."

"We will get to the top when we get there, and there will possibly be a cave. We need to be patient."

"Life's too short to be patient, I ain't that old but I'm sure I'm not supposed to be going up hills in a blizzard." He was already getting tired because of the change of altitude, so getting this done as fast as possible was Cid's first thought above anything else.

"Well then, I guess my old bones will have trouble as well." Cid nodded his head before stopping for a good minute to process what he heard before smiling and catching back up.

"Darkness, did you just tell a joke?" Cid couldn't see it under his cloak collar, but Vincent had a ghost of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he ignored the smoker's question.

* * *

><p>"I think we go that way." Barret pointed in a random direction.<p>

"You think or you know?" Red asked, clearly annoyed.

"No we go that way." He pointed in the opposite direction now.

"You are lost, aren't you?"

"No I know exactly where we are going. Just give me a minute." Barret and Red had crashed after being left by everyone else. The problem for both of them was that without the map they had to rely on Red most of the time to pick up on any of the team's scents.

"Do you have anything?" Barret asked. Red shook his head.

"No one has been around here. But there are monsters ahead." As if on cue, two giant insects had come out of the trees that they had just exited.

"I hate these bugs. They keep coming out of nowhere!" Barret fired a few burst at one bug before casting a quake spell to crush part of its body. Red had attacked head on and took out the bugs pincers before finally crushing its head with his teeth. A quick battle, but annoying for Barret.

"I'm gunna run out of bullets if this keeps up," Barret said holding his arm.

"We'll find everyone; we just need to know what they would do." Red started walking away.

"You sure you know where you're goin?" Barret said catching up.

"I can smell minerals in this direction. Possibly a hot spring. We'll go there and try to find another landmark or a scent I can follow."

* * *

><p>"You think they went this way?" Aeris asked.<p>

"I remember the map; we have to go this way to reach a cabin. We'll get help there." Cait said leading the way, he'd already gotten both of them out of the forest they had landed in.

"You remember the whole thing?"

"I have a photographic memory. I know exactly where we are going." The cat jumped happily on the mog as they started going north around a hot spring.

"Do you think everyone else is okay?" Aeris continued talking. Without the usual conversation the group had, it was disturbingly quiet to her. Having gotten used to the banter, she missed it now.

"Everyone's fine, I'm sure they all hooked up and are ahead of us." Aeris smiled hearing how positive Cait was. She would never have thought of him as a Shinra executive considering how the cat acted.

"Cait, who exactly are you if you don't mind me asking?" The cat stopped hopping around before turning to her while the mog still went forward.

"That is a secret! Well, no not really, but still it's a secret." She was confused a little by him but shrugged it off to how he acted.

"I just think it's odd how you act; it's not something anyone in Shinra would do."

"I'm special! You'll find out someday, it's a riveting tale. Now we have to keep going, we can't be away too long from our friends." She giggled hearing how the cat called everyone his friends. The doubt anyone had back at the Gold Saucer had dissolved with time and him using his body to get the Black Materia. However her thoughts were cut off when the wind picked up. The snow coated part of the winter suit she bought after seeing Tifa and Yuffie nearly freeze to death.

"This is getting worse the longer we travel."

"Right you are. Stay out here too long and you might turn into a Popsicle."

"Are you sure everyone else is okay?" She asked again. Cait just smiled.

"It will take more than a snow storm to take down those guys." Cait smiled. Assured everyone else was going to be fine.

* * *

><p>"You need to be more careful, what if those wolves caught us by surprise?"<p>

"Tifa I'm fine, it's only a scratch," Cloud complained. Yet she insisted on healing him in a cave both had found after going through a snow field after an encounter with a pack of wolves.

"I hardly call a claw slash a scratch Cloud," Tifa said while wrapping bandages on the wound. "Okay I'm done."

"Then let's get going." However when he got up, Tifa blocked the entrance.

"Cloud, you need to rest. You did most of the fighting and we have been traveling nonstop."

"Tifa I know, but we need to keep moving if we are going to be able to get help. Everyone else is still stuck out there and I have the map. I was lucky even to find you." She sighed. Cloud was right but she didn't like the reasoning.

"Will they be able to follow our markers?" Before running through the field Cloud thought of using items to mark their progress in case they got lost. Without the mountains or trees the wind picked up and both Cloud and Tifa could barely see five feet in front of them.

"I hope, according to the map there are around three different areas that lead to the snowfield."

"Do you think they're almost as far as we are?" Cloud shook his head.

"I doubt it. With the map we made decent time, everyone else is on their own." Cloud looked over and saw Tifa's uncertain look.

"Hey." She looked over. "You know everyone is strong. They'll make it through; we're only ahead to get help if they're a little behind." She seemed to perk up at the thought, if only a little.

"Sorry, I worry too much." She waved it off.

"Nathan has said you dote over everyone like a mother Chocobo." Although he wasn't told personally, Barret had told him about how Nate viewed everyone on the team. It was funny when he thought about it and it seemed true.

"He just wants me to bash him over the head, I know it. Barret and Cid know better and yet he instigates everything." Cloud had a small smile when her thoughts were now focused on other things.

"Okay, I think we've rested long enough. I doubt the snow storm is going to let up." Looking outside the cave now it could have been worse for all he knew. Tifa sighed and braced herself for the cold.

"We head north, that's where we'll find help." Cloud said as both entered the blizzard.

* * *

><p>"Yuffie we can't relax in the water, that is the last thing we should do."<p>

"Nate come on, it's warm and nice. Feel it." She promptly splashed me, causing me to sputter from the hot water on my face.

"Yuffie, if we get in we have to get out. I don't want to go from boiling to ice cube in two seconds, now come on. We have a path to follow." We had already passed the hot springs and passed the single tree in a small patch of ice ending up on the north side. Currently we were cutting through a few hills to get to the cabin as fast as we could. However the wind had picked up and snow was bearing down on us.

"It's still cold, I hate this place." I heard Yuffie mumble behind me.

"Don't they have winter in Wutai?" I asked.

"Not like this!" She complained.

"Yuffie complaining doesn't make you warmer, just so you know." Looking over I saw a now large field of snow. But since the weather seemed to get worse and worse, I couldn't see very far.

"Yuffie, we have a few problems ahead of us."

"Like?"

"We have to cross a snowfield." I heard her groan. "I know, but this is where we have to go."

"But we could get lost, we don't have a compass and everyone else is still out there."

"Which is why we need to get help Yuffie. Going back up the slope is damn near impossible so all we can do is go forward." Even though I hated this part of the game. It was tedious and annoying when I wanted to collect items. Now? I just want to move ahead and stop caring about this place.

"Yuffie just stay close to me and you'll be alright. We'll take it slow and when strong winds start to blow, get down so you're not knocked over." She only nodded when I took her hand again. Moving forward and away from the hills, both of us felt the full blast of wind that had originally been hindered. Catching our footing after being knocked over, we started walking again.

By now I realized why Yuffie was complaining. Even being used to snow didn't mean that I was going to get through a storm and act as if nothing was going to throw me off. Also, I couldn't remember the last time that a blizzard like this hit Colorado.

The more we walked though, the more unsure I was about going completely north though. The wind would blow enough to make both of us tip over and have to dig ourselves out of the snow to keep walking. Considering we weren't being blasted across the field, I was sure we were going the right way.

But as time went by, it never seemed to get easier. I could only see maybe five feet in front of myself. The snow piled until it was well above my ankles. Every step took more and more effort as the minutes went by. Yuffie had the same problems and would get slower, which didn't sit well with me. The entire time I led the way, she didn't say a single word, not even a complaint.

"Yuffie, are you good?" I asked. I had to raise my voice to be heard over the wind. She didn't say anything but nodded.

"Yuffie I need to hear you." She didn't do anything so I looked under her hood.

Her entire face was red. She looked like she had a pained look on her face as well. I finally noticed she had been shivering more than usual. Putting my hand to her forehead to see she wasn't burning up but was colder than normal.

"Yuffie, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing, we need to keep going." She tried to go ahead of me but I held tighter on her hand.

"Yuffie you've been out in the cold too long. We need to get you somewhere safe so you can warm up." If she had decent winter clothes she wouldn't be like this. Now we have to make a detour. Even I can't survive this forever either. But the problem now was how we were going to get out of the storm.

"You can still walk right?" She nodded again. Why the hell didn't she tell me she was this bad?

"Then don't let go of my hand. I think a cave is around here somewhere, we just have to head towards the center of the field." We'll go to the cave and rest for a while, and then we'll go to the cabin.

"Come on." Pulling harder we went off in a different direction. I doubt we're even close to the end or even past the middle of the field. The problem was that the storm kept finding ways to hinder us. We got more snow so we were slower than normal. The storm bared down more so now I couldn't see more than five feet in front of myself. Even the wind picked up and actually made me feel as if I was being turned around. The more this went on, the more I felt like we were actually going to be stuck in the middle of the storm. My nerves were feeling the cold, more so than before. I guess I have to thank myself for fucking my nerves up.

With everything escalating I know that Yuffie and I are going to be screwed if I can't find shelter. I need some way to clear out the snow and see better. I looked down at my arm and decided to point straight up.

"Yuffie, cover your head." I casted one the highest level fire spells I could into the air. The snow around us immediately melted from the sudden burst of intense heat. And luckily the spell did what I wanted it to do and disperse in the air making it so that for just a few seconds the snow in the air thinned out. I still couldn't see anything significant but now I could see farther than usual.

We both started walking while I kept shooting fireballs into the air. It wasn't nearly as cold as before, but I could still feel the numbness in my limbs. I had two ethers and one elixir so I could continue casting for a while since I have good magic reserves. Hopefully someone would see the fireballs and come in our direction so we would have a better chance of getting the group together.

I drank my first ether, my head feeling clearer since I started casting. I continued shooting into the air and making sure Yuffie was alright. She was breathing heavily but without the snow barraging her, she didn't look so bad. I'm surprised she didn't get hypothermia sooner.

"Nate, I need to rest." She mumbled.

"Can't do that Yuffie, you need to keep your blood pumping."

"I don't want to, just a few minutes. Please Nate?"

"No." I pulled harder to keep her going. Harsh I know, but the faster we found the cave the better she would be rather than resting in the middle of the snow. She compiled, albeit sluggishly.

In the distance I started to notice the snow wasn't piling as much as it should have been. Shooting a few more fireballs I noticed it was actually a giant rock. Happily I took my last ether and started to pull Yuffie with me. It didn't take long to find the cave and we were safe from the wind inside. I laid Yuffie down away from the opening.

"We're good now. You can rest for a while." She didn't say much and just snored lightly. I shook my head but looked outside.

"Damn I hope everyone else is okay." I had tried to reach everyone through my PHS but the signal was complete shit. I don't get how we didn't run into a single person. Looking back into the cave, I decided to explore. We may be safe, but we don't have the luxury of monsters not going into non-designated areas. Progressing. I started noticing that ice stalagmites were forming more and more. The air was colder in the back, giving me an overall bad feeling about the place.

On cue, one of the larger icicles fell right above me so I rolled back to avoid it. Before I could get my bearings two more fell making me dive to the side.

"Okay, cut the crap." Annoyed, I cast a fire spell towards the cave ceiling and watched as all of the icicles melted into water. I slumped against the wall and breathed a sigh of relief until I felt a puncture in the shoulder. Yelling, I looked to see an icicle stabbed into me. I saw a flash out the corner of my eye before ducking and finding several more bits of ice stabbing into where my body had been. Looking into the deeper part of the cave, I knew something was there but I couldn't see it. Using my good arm I threw a fire spell into it. I got up when I heard a high pitched scream of pain and looked at the dimming fire on the ground.

It was a chick. She looked like Shiva but she didn't have the same areas of blue or even the same face. She looked like she had a blue one piece on, but closer inspection showed it was just ice covering her.

"Just fucking great." I mumbled. She looked up and glared at me.

"You have the nerve of coming in here. After touch those dirty hot springs! You will-"

"Blah-blah fucking blah-bity-blah!" I yelled back, shutting her up. "Let me guess, you're the ice bitch people talk about. Now listen, I am not in the mood for this shit since I have a friend going though hypothermia, I am out of patience. So here you go: you leave and I forget you exist. Or you can try to kill me and I will make you the prettiest puddle in this place."

"You dirty little hooligan. I will end you like I did those other dirty vermin!" She growled. I ripped out the icicle in my shoulder with a groan and looked back at her.

"I have black magic, a hair trigger reaction, and a short fuse. Bring it."

She took in a deep breath and blew out ice shards at me. I inhaled and blew on my fire materia to melt the shards to see her much angrier than before. She lifted her hand and larger shards of ice appeared and were flung at me. I ran and dove back to avoid the ice two spell and looked back to see the ice witch coming down the cavern.

"Push!" I cast a gravity spell and the ball formed in my hand. But instead of throwing it, I let it explode from my palm. The result was all of the demi damage throwing the womanly monster back further into the cavern. Looking back in, she got up and looked at me angrily before she smirked. She started to moved oddly and flipped her hair. I couldn't keep my eyes off her and I felt disoriented. Realizing what her attack was, I held out my arm.

"Nope," I said simply when I shot a bolt of lightning from my hand that impacted and threw her further into her own cave.

"If you think I'm going to let you confuse me, you have another thing coming." I threw a fire ball at her but she dodged and tossed an ice shard that cut my leg. I knelt down and she tossed more ice daggers that cut me across my arms. I threw another fireball to make her fall back when I felt my head go light for a second. I was running low on magic.

Before I could think about getting my elixir, the ice woman threw more icicles my way making me dodge to the side behind a larger chunk that almost fell on me. I can't use my summons in here, we could cave in, comet is the same. Fire is my best bet, but she keeps coming back.

Another icicle flew past the side of my head, making me clutch it. I tossed another fireball which scorched her and made her scream again. She had to have a magic threshold too, I've been casting fire three spells for I don't know how long, but she's been unloading ice and ice two. She has to be tired.

"I will never forgive you!"

"Your character has no purpose!" I yelled back. Another ice shard was thrown at my hiding spot, making it crack. I was getting weaker and I need a way to kill that bitch. She is only hampering me and one thing I hate is tedious tasks. Looking at my materia I thought up a plan.

"You know the ice doesn't change how bad your breath stinks. I think the hot springs would help you if you brushed your teeth." I got the intended response with said ice breath attack coming at me. I blew on my fire materia again and created a steam cloud to run through. Using what energy I had left, I sprinted through the cloud and collided with the surprised ice witch. Tackling her, I held both of her arms down while she struggled.

"I know this is messed up, but you started this." I let her go only to have both of my hands dig into her head. My HP and MP absorbs glowing brightly.

"Leech." I started to feel myself get stronger and less winded as well as my mind got clearer. The ice witch however was screaming at the top of her lungs and trying to knock me off. I guess even these spells hurt. Holding on tighter, I absorbed more of her health and magic. She made an ice dagger in her hand and stabbed my right arm. The sensation of pain and healing made me clench my teeth, but I kept my hands in place.

Soon enough her hands fell to the side and she stopped screaming. I let my hands go to reveal a pale and somewhat aged face of the now dead snow woman.

"God... that's brutal." I got up and felt my right arm's muscles protest. I wasn't much better than what I was from the start. Looking down, the witch started to vanish in dust only to reveal a red orb. I picked up the Alexander materia and walked back to the cave opening. Yuffie looked a little better than before but was still red and exhausted.

I heard a howl outside the cave entrance and cursed. The commotion would cause more monsters to come. We would have to leave.

"Yuffie get up, it's time to go." She frowned and groaned. Her eyes half open and glossy.

"...to...tired..." I sighed. She was too weak to walk on her own before. Now it's going to be impossible to get her to move on her own.

"Yuffie you don't have to walk." I said. She looked up at me as I turned and knelt down. "Get on my back and hold tight. I'll carry you the rest of the way." I said. I expected protests but instead felt her weight on my back as she wrapped her arms around my neck. Getting up, I braced myself knowing I was going to piggy back Yuffie across the snow.

I drank my elixir and started walking out into the snow again. I don't know how we got turned around, but heading northwest was now our best bet. The cold felt worse than before, but I kept taking step after step. Eventually I couldn't see the cave anymore and my vision was filled with flurries of snow.

"You know you owe me for this." I said to Yuffie. She was asleep again, but talking to her would make me feel better about my situation.

"I don't want any materia. In fact I want another date." I said. The snow making my wounds hurt more considering they weren't fully healed.

"And it has to be a proper one too. Like I take you out for food and then a movie or something, then we watch the stars or something cheesy, then I get a kiss. I don't want some friendship hug like last time, I want a kiss. You hear me?" She only shuddered a little at the sudden increase of wind.

"Of course you don't..." one of the cuts on my leg acted up and suddenly my leg fell asleep on me. Not caring about the aftereffects, I grabbed my wound and activated a bolt spell. The sudden feeling of more pain caused me to scream as I felt my leg start to move again. I stumbled forward but kept walking. Yuffie felt heavier on my back as time passed by. What felt like hours were just minutes as I continued walking. I could feel my body getting more sluggish as my core temperature dropped, my breathing was getting more labored. I could barely feel Yuffie's breathing anymore so I tried to speed up.

Every one of my joints started to shut down as I fell to my knees, finally tired from everything. Lifting up my shaking, frozen hand, I concentrated and casted the largest fireball I could muster, hoping someone would see it. As I fell forward I saw through the dissipated snow some lights. I had a smile on my face as I lost consciousness, confident I got whoever's attention I wanted.


	33. Chapter 33

A/N Yes next chapter everyone, whats so great about this one? We have now officially broken the 200,000 word limit at disk 2. In reality I thought this would be shorter and not as popular, but 200,00 words and over 200 reviews is pretty decent if I do say so myself.

I really don't have any news but i have to thank my beta reader saria19, I swear if it was anyone else i wouldn't be improving in my writing as well as with her reading this.

enjoy!

* * *

><p>Ch 33<p>

The moment I was fully conscious I felt safe. I was surrounded by warmth and possibly the comfiest blanket in the world. I didn't feel the sting of frost on my fingertips anymore as well as not having a stuffy nose so by some stroke of luck I didn't catch a cold.

"Oh good, you're awake." I opened my eyes to see a wood ceiling. Sitting up I saw Nanaki off to the side, keeping his single eye on me.

"Is everyone alright?" I asked.

"Yes, Cloud and Tifa were here first. Then Cait and Aeris, then Barret and I, Vincent arrived later with Cid after you made that signal. Though you have been sleeping for a few hours now." Wow, that isn't as bad as I thought it would be, and only a few hours? I must be getting tougher if I can sleep that kind of crap off. I got up and stretched.

"How about Yuffie, she alright?"

"ACHOO!" A loud sneeze erupted before Nanaki could answer. I got up and went into the next room. Lo and behold there she was, under three blankets, with a thermometer, and her feet in a tub of warm water while she was sitting on the bed getting medicine from Tifa.

"Yo." I said, both looking back at me. It was a little funny to see Yuffie in such a state but laughing would not be the appropriate thing to do. "I see you're doing better."

"Not much, I'm still cold." Yuffie said.

"Good thing you got here when you did. I don't know what would have happened if either of you froze to death." Tifa added.

"So what's the plan?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Cloud is collecting gear from the owner of this cabin."

"Gear?" I don't remember him giving us anything back in the game, am I missing something?

"We have to climb up the mountain, so he's giving us some ice climbing supplies so we can get up there." Oh okay, thank god he is willing to help us. I don't want to even think about having to climb up ice with my bare hands.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but he doesn't have enough for all of us." Tifa said, somehow reading my mind. I slumped a bit.

"I call having spiky shoes." Yuffie laughed a little and Tifa smiled. I waved and headed upstairs to see Barret now sporting a very large jacket.

"So your burly ass is getting cold now?" I smiled. He chuckled a little before turning around.

"I ain't the one who collapsed right in front of the cabin." Barret said with a smug look on his face.

"I'll admit I'm no superman, but I got through that snow field like a real bad ass."

"Who's superman?"

"Not important, what is though, do you have another jacket? I am not about to risk this cold in what I have now." Lucky for me there was one in my size, however I was stuck with my pants so I had to deal with my legs being cold.

"It's still going to suck we have to climb the ice, it's going to take a long ass time to set everything up and have people follow." I ranted.

"Not at all." I turned to see a new face. He was an older looking man, around fifty or so, but he had a sort of youth in his face. Sure he had gray hair, but contrary to whom I've seen in the cabin, he was only wearing a light leather jacket and pants.

"I'm Holzoff, I own this cabin." That was his name; he's the guy that saved us if we collapse.

"So you helped my friend and I?" I asked.

"Actually the blond haired man and raven haired woman helped you. They heard the burst of flames and rushed out to see what was happening." Oh, guess Nanaki wasn't kidding when everyone else got here.

"Anyways I have lived here for over twenty years. I have scaled this mountain more times than I can count. There are more than a few secure places to attach the rope I gave your leader, so there is little chance even beginners like you will have to worry about falling." Well that's good to know.

"I've already given him the precautions about checking your route since the ice and snow cover it up, and to rest if you need to. Exhaustion will only hamper your progress and cause errors as you climb." So know hammering the square button to warm ourselves up? Damn, I could have used that tidbit.

"This guy's been climbin twenty years Nate; make sure you listen like everyone else." Barret said, trying to annoy me but failing.

"Actually I've been climbing for thirty; I practiced in one of the towns." Holzoff said.

"So you're from Icicle Inn?" I asked, remembering the house that Yuffie raided the map from was his wife's.

"Yes, but I did my first climbs at Modeoheim." That surprised me. I hadn't heard of Modeoheim in a long time. If I remember correctly, Zack had killed Angeal there. But it was never clear what happened afterwards.

"I've never heard of it." Barret said.

"Not many have. It's an old Mako extraction site almost surrounded by mountains of ice. When it was abandoned, myself and others would go to the town to get experience climbing the smaller hills before tackling the Great Glacier, and eventually Gaia's Cliff."

"I heard a long time ago monsters invaded the place and Shinra was sent in to exterminate them." I recalled. Modeoheim was never mentioned again after Crisis Core so something must have happened to it.

"Yes, I did too. But it was cleared out quite some time ago. But snowboarding has become popular, so I don't think anyone goes there anymore." Huh, you learn something new every day. The old man walked out saying he was going to give Cloud more instructions. Lucky for me he happened to have a pair of ice climbing boots in my size so I packed them. He said he didn't have any ice picks for me to climb with so I opted to use Fusion to stab into the ice.

"You know I've been thinkin." I looked at Barret looking out the large window. "Seein a place like this, makes you realize how awesome nature is. But if anyone told me to live here I'd tell them to... you know."

"Shove it? Yeah I can see that." I agreed.

"I tell you one thing though, if I did have to live here I'd change things around and make them better...i guess the total opposite of this would be... Midgar. When you think of it that way, Shinra don't seem so bad... wait... What the hell am I saying? Shinra ain't bad? BAHHHH!" He shook his head, I just laughed.

"Colds getting to ya dude. But I don't know, I like to think this place and Midgar are more alike than different." He raised his eyebrow.

"Both are cold in their own rights, barren of any good life, only the powerful really can live while the weak are slowly dying off. You can compare and contrast all you like. In the end it really doesn't matter. We can't admire the scenery forever."

"I guess." Barret walked off. I explored more of the cabin seeing Cid sporting more appropriate winter clothes and Yuffie finally getting pants like Tifa. I thought we would be low on gil but Holzoff said he had an excess in case he needed to pick travelers up. Lucky for us no one else was coming through here.

"We might want to start now everyone." We had culminated outside now; making sure everything was ready before we started. "This is secret info, but Rufus is coming this way as well."

"What? Why the hell would he come here himself?" Barret asked.

"Won't it take him a long time? Unless he was already in the continent it would take days by helicopter." Aeris questioned.

"He's taking the Highwind here." Cait said.

"The little bastards taking my plane?" Cid yelled.

"Then we'll have to move now. I assume the plane is fast so he'll be here in no time." Cloud said. Everyone started moving out. When we got to the bottom of the cliff and started climbing it was actually easier than expected. Cloud went up first to set up the safety rope and threw down a flare when he was at the top. Barret carried Nanaki and Cait while I, Tifa, and Yuffie went up. The winds were, if possible, more brutal than the snow fields, making everyone swung when you were trying to move up. Fusion really helped.

"Is everyone good? Check if you lost anything." Cloud asked when we all reached the top. If it weren't for the wind I would have had fun actually. I could get use to rock and ice climbing. While I checked my equipment I noticed my Fire materia was glowing abnormally.

"Hey Cloud, is something wrong with this?" I pointed. He walked up and examined my gauntlets, taking the fire materia out. I looked at the palm of his hand when my materia had started to split and morph until two were in his hand. But I noticed one had the regular flame on the inside while the other looked like a solid red center.

"You mastered your fire, that's good. We have an extra materia." So that's how materia split, kinda like cell division. Pretty cool. After getting back my mastered fire we went inside our first cavern. What was surprising was the unnatural amount of light in the cave, it was very well lit.

"It's like the Mythril mines," Tifa said off offhandedly.

"Yep, buncha sparkles and monsters. A great combination, what is so bad about it?" Barret said sarcastically. It was beautiful don't get me wrong, this was the first time I had ever been in a giant ice cavern and it looked gorgeous. But with the looming threat of monsters it was short lived. The group continued to go through the caverns and we only got the occasional Materia Keeper wanna be monsters and evil, yellow penguins. I was really happy when we found the ribbon though. I didn't get it but hey now Nanaki is immune to most status ailments.

"We have to turn around." Cloud said when we reached what appeared to be a dead end.

"It looks like a path is behind the ice. You don't suppose you can break it with your sword?" Nanaki asked. Cloud he shook his head. Even though we were supposed to make the ice break with a boulder, I don't want to waste time. Pushing myself to the front of the group I bent down to the base of the ice. I concentrated on my materia but did something different. I cast a third level fire, but I compressed it as much as I could until it was a blue flame on my index finger. I placed my hand at the bottom of the ice and started to basically blow torch the chunk. Sure enough, the bottom started melting. I made sure to get the ice cut to half before I stopped. I got Cloud to come up and swing his buster sword at the ice. It didn't cut, but the ice was knocked back, clearing our path.

"I love materia." I heard Yuffie say.

"Same here Yuffie." I agreed. She smiled while we continued our way. The group went up another cliff and into another ice cave. This one was much larger and had two exits, but one was behind a pool of ice water that no one really wanted to attempt a jump over. So we took the other route which led outside into the wind that was now bearable.

"I don't get why that Sephiroth wants to go all the way up here. What the fuck is so good about this place?" Cid said.

"I have to agree. I don't see any significant use for this place, or what it has to do with Sephiroth casting Meteor." Nanaki said.

"Maybe it has something to do with being near the top of the world." the rest of the group looked at Barret. "Hey I'm just spit ballin here."

"Whatever the reason we can discuss it later. We have company." Cloud said, brandishing his sword. No a moment later a giant green mass of vines with large sharp teeth around the corner.

"What is a Malboro doing in this cold?" Nanaki asked, getting into attack position. No one was able to answer when the monster decided to start off with its trump card attack.

It took one breath and suddenly spewed out a green miasma at the group. It wasn't a slow spread either. It was a concentrated burst of air that hit most of the group, including myself. I tried to hold my breath but the sting on my skin made me yell out and inhale. I felt the effects immediately.

My skin had quickly developed green patches of moist skin. I was drowsy, one second my eyes showed the Malboro and the next they would black out. I saw the thing looked taller so I was shorter than normal. And to top it all off, I couldn't hear myself even think. The silence spell kicking in.

From what I could gather with my limited senses, Cloud seemed okay, smart enough to get out of the way. Tifa I had to guess was one of the two actual frogs in the snow, along with Aeris. I would have freaked out if it weren't for being hit by a tentacle on the ground. I think Vincent and Cid were unharmed; they were the furthest back in the group. Barret looked smaller now, about Cloud's height, but still fighting. Cait and Nanaki were fighting the plant with no adverse effects on them what so ever. Before I could see Yuffie I heard her cast an Esuna spell on one frog which then turned into a weak looking Tifa.

Not wanting to wait to take another hit I got up and ran straight. I didn't trust my sense of direction so I went along the snow path brandishing both of my swords. Getting one glimpse of the monster I was charging at I jumped and stabbed both swords into the creature. Lucky for me, I got inside its mouth.

The Malboro thrashed around and lashed at my body as it tried to get the swords out of it. But I didn't go for a kill shot. Being a distraction I saw Cloud cut a bushel of tentacles as Barret and Vincent shot at the thing from a distance. Soon enough I felt the monster stop its frenzy and die. I sat still until I felt myself get better as Yuffie cast an Esuna spell. My body was finally doing what I wanted it to do.

"It's good we killed it fast, any more time and you would have been in trouble." Vincent said.

"That bad breath is a nasty attack." Barret said.

"You tell me." I said getting up. Yuffie came up looking over my skin where the amphibian parts were. "See anything you like?" She huffed and took a step back.

"No, it's that that bad breath only hurt you with the bare minimum of all those status ailments. It's like that time in Corel. Status ailments need to take more time on you."

"That's kind of weird, isn't it?" Tifa chipped in. I shrugged.

"I really don't know. I rarely get hit with them so I can't tell." I said.

"For whatever reason, your resilience helped us win. I say we keep going so we don't have a reenactment." Aeris said. We continued up the icy path until we entered a new part of the cavern with multiple giant icicles.

"Well hell, a dead end." Cid said. Cloud looked over the edge though before looking at me.

"Nate, can you fire a few spells at the top of those icicles. They might be big enough to help us with the other exit." Nodding I shot a few lower lever spells just to get the ice falling. I still remember when the game made me battle the giant icicles. Really ridiculous actually now that I think about it. Some of those battles were completely meaningless. Amidst my thoughts Cloud had jumped off the ledge. This area wasn't so far up from the main room. Maybe one story, a story and a half. It was easy for everyone to jump down really. After nabbing the speed source, we all jumped across the ice blocks and out into the cold again. We had to use up most of what was left of our safety rope before we got to the top. However when we entered we heard a very loud thud in the next room.

"Weapons ready, start defensive spells." Cloud said. Sure enough I felt the extra protection of barrier and magic barrier along with the extra hype from a haste spell. Entering the next room we were greeted by the sight of a body in a black cloak being thrown past us. One last groan was heard before the person died. The amount of blood on it gave away he was nearly smashed to death before being thrown.

"Great... a dragon." Looking down the ice hall we could see what Cloud saw. A large two headed dragon, sitting in the icy room, surrounded by the bodies of black cloaked people. All of them currently dead.

"It seems we can't pass freely." Vincent noted.

"Let's take it down." Barret cocked his gun arm. Everyone ran into the large room and started to surround the boss. The dragon noticed this and decided to open the bat with both of its heads spitting out their respective elements and making a 360 degree turn effectively making everyone duck into cover.

"It uses ice and fire, use the opposite element on the other," Nanaki yelled. Nodding, I let loose a level three fire spell. It was exactly what I remembered from the game, large, spherical, and burning hot even in my direction explosion. Needless to say the ice dragon head roared when it was in the center of the explosion. My excitement was short lived when the second head decided a breath of fire was a good retaliation. I ran as fast as I could behind the thickest piece of ice I could find and held my breath as the dragon unleashed its fury. By the end of the attack I was sweating buckets with only a third of an ice boulder between me and the dragon.

Cloud had attacked it while its attention was on me, however the ice head had sobered up and made Cloud jump back when he was being hit by a spray of ice shards. Cid had attacked its tail with his new javelin but he was swiped over to me where I ran over to him and pulled us both behind another ice boulder to avoid the red head's fire attack.

"That fucking skin makes my spear useless." He said.

"How the hell are we going to get past it then?" I look over to see Cid pull out his smokes and actually use the flames from the fire attack overhead to light it before he took a breath.

"Did you just do that? No fucking way? No one does awesome shit like that in the middle of battle!" I yelled at him.

"Time and place kid. I think better with a cig. You go right and I go left. Use some of that magic." He patted my shoulder before forcing me out of one side of the boulder and him sprinting out of the other. I pulled out both Fusion and my fake Masamune and channeled my lightning materia into both. Man, I should name my Masamune. This is a little awkward thinking of it as a fake all of the time.

"Nate move!" I ran when a dragon claw came at me. It missed and stabbed into the ice. Okay no non-fighting thoughts right now. Using the delay I rounded both swords around my body before twisting and using my spin's momentum to slash the arm. The electrical cuts went about halfway through the arm before it was pulled back.

Nanaki and Barret got the idea to attack the dragon's tail with the red canine using a Sled Fang to bite into it while Barret shot at the back of the heads. The planned worked for the most part. The dragon started to flail in pain while Vincent and Tifa kept the heads distracted. But the dragon decided the best way to avoid this was to jump and smash into the ground. The entire room shook as the ice below the boss burst with large cracks, knocking everyone off balance and throwing Nanaki off of its tail.

But the attack caused most of the stalagmites to fall from the ceiling. I threw a fire spell into the air to melt most of the ice but the dragon swiped its tail and knocked me back. Aeris came up and healed me while Vincent jumped back, a particularly nasty deathblow attack from him making the dragon head attack him with both of its attacks. Thinking one of my old strategies would work; I put Fusion away and readied my other sword. I channeled my lightning spell through it and ran at the boss. When I was close to its belly, I took a batters position and swung Masamune.

But apparently the scales were tougher than the Red dragon. The sword got underneath some skin but barely caused any bleeding, the dragon soon swiped at me with its claws but I rolled out of the way. I decided to try one of my newest materias since I was running out of options. I pulled out my comet and started focusing. When I was done I looked around to see that nothing happened.

"What the hell! Why didn't it cast!" I yelled. Aeris pointed above me. Looking I saw a vortex not dissimilar to what summons came from. Suddenly multiple flaming rocks rained down on the dragon boss. The impact actually piercing into the dragons hide. But the boss still wouldn't go down. A hail of meteors and it kept everyone at bay still.

"Those two heads let it cover its sides. I have no idea how to get around the thing." Cloud came up, resting for a few seconds before we all moved away from another twin elemental breath attack.

"We need a distraction. Something to keep one or both occupied while everyone else focuses on one head to weaken it." Cloud added.

"I can provide one." looking over I saw Vincent with his headband already off.

"Vince I don't know. Your Galian beast uses fire attacks, and your Death Gigas is too slow." Cloud said. Vincent stepped forward anyways.

"I believe I am strong enough to hold this one at bay, but for your own safety please, keep away." Vincent soon fell to his knees and his cloak morphed around him, his body changing shape and size for another one of his transformations. This time though he started chuckling. As his body changed it soon came to a full blown nonstop laugh, as if he couldn't control himself. His cloak started to shrink and became pale until only what looked like a strait jacket with its sleeves torn was on the now twice as large being. His hands both now had large metal gloves; in one of them was an extremely large chainsaw.

His face had somehow grown a mask over it, metal with small breathing holes, much like a hockey mask. His steps made loud thuds as his feet were now covered with large boots. As the transformation went on the laughter never ceased. Only when Vincent was finished did it die down. The new creature's heavy breathing the only indication it was alive.

"I'M FREE! AHAHAHAHAHAH!" Hellmasker yelled, the berserk like laughter somehow louder than before.

"I FINALLY GET TO PLAY!" He took his weapon and revved it up. The sharp, mechanical chains rotated loudly, almost deafening. His eyes having a horrible glint in them, looking at the boss that finally noticed him.

"I ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY DRAGON FLESH!" Hellmasker ran up to the dragon with no fear. His chainsaw high and his ever present laugh continuing. The dragon snorted before using its fire head to breathe in then let out a flamethrower right into him. But Hellmasker emerged unharmed and took a swing at the dragon's snout. The saw somehow cut the tough skinned monster and continued to tear until the pain of the surprise attack was registered and the dragon slapped him away into an ice wall. A very audible crack was made when Hellmasker impacted and landed on his head.

"Vincent!" Aeris yelled. She tried to run but I held onto her. "Let go, he needs help before he-"

"We need to attack the dragon! It will take more to kill him." As if to prove my point the same evil laughter was heard. We all looked at the large body slowly crack its bones back into place and stand straight. One thing wrong though was his head. In his smash and resulting crash from the fall, it had twisted until it was bent nearly ninety degrees.

"YOU HAVE GUTS..." He took his hands and twisted his head back into place, in the opposite direction. Showing everyone his head rotated a full 360 degrees before finally setting normally back on his body. Hellmasker cracked it once before grabbing his saw and starting it up again.

"I LIKE THAT IN A VICTIM! HAHAHAHAH!" Shaking myself away from the spectacle I decided to launch a fire spell at the unsuspecting ice dragon head. The spell hit home and caused the dragon head to scream in pain. The fire head would have retaliated but Hellmasker had charged again, keeping it busy.

"Alright, attack everyone!" Cloud ordered. Barret and Nanaki kept at the tail now with Cloud. I was near Yuffie who threw her shuriken at the ice beast's head before it blew a breath at her. I cast a fire spell so only mist passed me by, but the ice shards liquefied when she was hit.

"Thanks for the ring!" She said happily. She caught her weapon and threw again. I had forgotten she still had the ice ring on. I'll probably never get it back but I guess that it's okay.

The ice dragon head had launched forward to eat me, but I wasn't completely lost in my thoughts. Jumping back I prepped my gravity materia and focused over the dragon's head, multiple black orbs now floating above it.

"Press!" The orbs exploded and suddenly bared down on the dragon's head, causing the body to balance itself at the sudden lopsidedness. The ice head struggled but I kept fueling the spell, making sure the gravitational pull was still on.

Taking advantage of my attack. Tifa ran up to the ice head. What surprised me was when she had cast a fire spell and lit her Dragon claw glove. Pulling back she threw her punch, hitting the dragon in its eye, making it struggle more. Tifa backed away, tired from using the spell much like I would have. Barret soon came up and prepped himself.

"Yo Tif, let me show you how to punch." Looking I saw Barret circle around the dragon, pressing something on his gun arm. Slowly the gun started letting off steam and pulsating some energy. Barret charged the dragon's other eye. When he hit, the gun arm had exploded in an explosion of metal and energy. The ice head finally let out its last breath when Barret pulled out his now exploded gun arm.

"Cait you said it wouldn't explode!" He yelled.

"I said it had a small chance of hurting you. Not that it wouldn't explode." The cat said as he shouted at the fire dragon head.

"You're lucky I got that new gun!" Barret reached behind him and put on his new gun. The Microlaser I think it was.

"Barret what was that?" Aeris asked. Currently putting on another layer of protection after the first spell wore off.

"Cait rigged a Mako battery into my gun. Gives it more power. I call it the Hammer Blow." Wait he made that limit break? I thought it couldn't kill bosses... well I guess that wouldn't be realistic, it can do damage but it has a heavy cost.

"I WILL MAKE YOU FEEL TERROR BEAST!" I look over to see Hellmasker breath out a cloud of mist at the monster. I doubted it would work until the dragon actually started to... whimper. It sounded as if it was in horrible pain but it just stood there in a daze.

"YES! LET YOUR FEAR GROW! LET THE NIGHTMARES CLAIM YOU! FEEL TRUE TERROR! HAHAHAHA!" The dragon stumbled around. The red head was already wounded enough by Hellmasker's ceaseless charges. I held onto Fusion and began channeling an Air Slash, next to me I saw Cloud's buster sword start to glow and him heaving it behind his back. I smiled a little at my idea when Cloud unleashed his Blade Beam when I flipped Fusion horizontally and yelled out.

"Cross Cleave!" The two shock wave attacks made exactly that and cut through the dragon's weak and almost scale-less neck. The boss finally fell down into the ground. I fell to the ground and caught my breath.

"Is everyone alright?" Cloud yelled. A unanimous yes and grunts was heard. The only one not to respond was Hellmasker who simply stood near the dragon's dead body, covered in the blood from our attacks.

"Vincent... you still good dude?" I asked. Hellmasker's head turned and looked at me, the glint still in his eye.

"STay...AwAy..." I heard a voice say, underlying Hellmasker's. The giant lunatic fell to its knees as it started to slim down. Muscle getting smaller, red cloak becoming more alive until finally Vincent was back with us, breathing harder than his last transformations. I went up right away, took his arm and placed it on my shoulder. The group was still hesitant from the transformation.

"I... may have... overestimated... myself." Vincent heaved out. I guess the stronger the monster he turns into, the harder it is for him to control. Thank god he was able to make himself focus on the dragon. I really didn't want to fight a man who thrives on others fear and pain wanting my blood. All he needed now was a scythe and to yell out Jashin-sama, that would have crept me out even more.

"We'll set up tents in the room we were in before. We shouldn't continue exhausted like this." No one argued so we all followed suit.

"Damn Darkness, you're one evil motherfucker you know?" Cid said. Vincent didn't respond, he was way too out of it.

"At least it helped. Now we can get up tomorrow morning all fresh to kill Sephiroth. I know I need the rest." I was beat as well. In fact I don't think anyone here was feeling all that well.

"So tomorrow's D-day?" Yuffie asked.

"There isn't any other place he can really run. I would assume as much." Nanaki said.

"But why come all the way out here?" Cait pondered out loud.

"He's been leading us the entire time. He could want a final showdown. So we can't be surprised by anything. We'll rest up, prepare all of our items, and then head out. Cait, when will Rufus arrive?" Cloud said.

"It will be sometime tomorrow, but if we head out early we could finish all of this before he gets here."

"Alright then. Heal up and start setting up camp." Cloud ordered.

It's a good idea to rest now. Tomorrow is when everything goes fucking ballistic. I had another plan to keep Sephiroth from summoning Meteor. It isn't half-assed either, I thought about what I need to do to make sure things go exactly as planned. I remember this place well since it was a major point of plot development in the game. It might make me look bad; hell the whole group could hate me. But I am willing to look like the bad guy, as long as it stops Sephiroth.


	34. Chapter 34

A/N alright guys, I've noticed i have been uploading at the latest of times during the week, ignore Saturday and Sunday and such. To make up for this, i thought since this was an epic part of the story i would make an extended chapter, 11,000 words compared to the normal 5000. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. this doesn't have everyone's viewpoints, but it does show the right perspectives to me.

so without further gilding the lily, and with no more adieu, i give you ch 34 of The Stranger from the Sky!

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><p>Ch 34<p>

"Are you sure you're fine, you were exhausted after what happened yesterday." Tifa pestered.

"It has been a long time since I let Hojo's monsters out. I simply need to get accustomed to it." Vincent answered. Tifa wasn't entirely convinced, but he had said he was well enough the next day to keep traveling so the group wouldn't lose time.

"I'm just making sure you're fine."

"I am, no need to persist." Vincent was a little tired of her. He knew she cared for the entire team and was the first to see to injures, but it could only go on for so long before she was doting over everyone.

"It's because she doesn't know how to take your transformations. They are a little threatening Vince," Nathan had pointed out, but Vincent had known that. Ever since his first transformation most of the group would be apprehensive of him afterwards. In time they would fall back in comfort and socialize with him but he would transform again and the cycle would repeat.

"I'm surprised what you have inside you, dude. Do you have to mentally keep all of those things at bay?" Nathan had asked. He was one who didn't fall into the previous situation. Instead of shifting away he would talk to him normally. Vincent had to fight against his Turk instincts when he had that thought. When he began traveling with everyone he would always have his guard up and expect to be used for something, or ordered by Cloud to give him old Shinra secrets then attempt to kill him when he had to transform the first time.

Yet none of those had every happened. Cloud never asked for secrets, no one made attempts to make him their tool or pawn, and Nathan had helped him the first time he had transformed. To be honest it was... comforting.

"If my resolve isn't strong enough then Hojo's pets would use me to kill anything and everything around me."

"How the hell did that crazy fucker get those things in you anyway?" Cid had asked bluntly, earning him a hit from Tifa.

"You don't just up and ask something like that Cid! It's rude!"

"Jeez woman, calm down I'm just wondering." He rubbed the back of his head before acknowledging Vincent again. "I guess you don't have to say anything, like I'll care later."

"When I was... turned into what I was, Hojo found a unique property in my blood." He had started. He didn't know why he had said anything, but it started and he felt he should finish the explanation, having now caught everyone's attention.

"My body had a unique ability to take other genetic information allowing me to copy over myself, thus becoming something different." Everyone had an odd look in their eye.

"So if I gave you my blood you could change into me?" Nathan asked.

"No, it must to be engraved into my genetic structure, not simply injected. Hojo spent months putting in what I have now."

"They don't seem like regular monsters you have inside you." Barret stated, Vincent only nodded.

"The Galian Beast was created from multiple monsters spliced together; Death Gigas was once an attempt to bring a person back using lighting materia as an electrical pulse." Vincent explained.

"But then what was it that you turned into before?" Red asked.

"Hellmasker, if I remember his ramblings he was once human, a serial killer that Hojo had toyed with. The man dealt with hallucinogens to make his victims go insane before killing them. When Hojo was done with him and the rest, he modified me to have their properties." That made everyone in the room shiver.

"Any other nasties we need to worry about?" Barret asked.

"...No, that was all of them."

"_You don't believe that I am important?"_

Vincent wanted to curse. Chaos had taking it upon itself to speak to him more when he had started traveling. Mocking him for everything wrong in his past and then telling him the future will only be more disappointing. How Sephiroth would kill all of them and he would be free. But as long as the Protomateria held he could breathe easy.

"_I am trapped only to prolong this world's fate weakling, yet when you fail then Jenova will bring my arrival much faster."_

"I think we are good. Let's head out everyone." Cloud said. Everyone started moving through the previous area and came out onto a ledge. What was odd was that even though they were at the highest point on the Great Glacier there wasn't any wind, in fact it was warmer compared to the rest of the mountain, something that puzzled Vincent.

"The weather is abnormal here." He said out loud.

"Yeah, it was freezing just yesterday, now I barely feel any wind." Yuffie added.

"What is wrong with this mountain?" Nathan asked.

"It's above us." Everyone turned to Aeris who had a far off look in her eyes.

"If we climb higher you'll see." She said. She started going up the short cliff first as everyone followed. Vincent worried about the sudden change in attitude but followed the same. When he reached the top he saw what Aeris meant.

Mako bursting out like a fountain in the middle of the largest crater Vincent had ever seen. Mist surrounded what looked like a large shield of whirlwind, circling the fountain, creating a gigantic pillar of a brilliant glowing green.

"Wow" Cid said, slack jawed and summing up everyone's thoughts.

"That's a lot of Mako." Barret said.

"This is where that object crashed like Holzoff said." Tifa remembered.

"The Planet had to take energy from the Lifestream to heal a wound it got from 2000 years ago." Cloud said.

"That doesn't look like healing to me." Nanaki noted.

"It's for a spell." Again Aeris caught everyone's attention.

"I thought Mako was used for energy?" Yuffie said.

"True, but being pure spirit energy it can also be used as a substitute for someone else's magic reserves." Vincent explained. He now realized what the pillar was.

"Sephiroth is trying to cast Meteor right now." Aeris stated. Everyone seemed to panic.

"So we're fucked now?" Cid asked.

"No, Meteor is a spell that takes more magic than any living thing in this world. It will take a long time for Sephiroth to complete it."

"Then we still have time, we have to keep moving, otherwise the wound won't be so small." Cloud ordered. The group started to slowly descend into the crater.

"Aeris, how do you know what is going on here?" Barret asked while everyone was climbing down. Vincent was curious and he had guessed everyone else was.

"All of this Mako... I can hear all of the voices that are inside of it, being harnessed for such a destructive magic." Aeris said, looking like she wanted to cry.

"Is it like the temple, or the city?" Nate asked.

"No... It's much worse. I don't hear whispers. It's like crying and yelling. The lifestream knows what it's being used for. It doesn't want to be used to kill itself."

"So we will have to stop him here and now. The time to settle things with Sephiroth is now, huh?" Tifa said out loud, as if contemplating something.

"I have lost many things because of Sephiroth... let's go." With some renewed vigor the team continued through the jagged rocks and mist. Vincent was getting more and more unnerved as they journeyed deeper. The experiments on his body with Chaos's tainted Mako made him sensitive to high levels of the resource, and going deeper only put him on edge.

"_Using the power of souls long dead, doesn't the idea excite you?"_

Vincent shook his head. The higher spirit levels would interact with the Protomateria. Chaos would be speaking to him more.

"Hey look over there." Everyone looked from Cait to a nearby ledge where a familiar cloaked figure had stumbled to. Before anyone could react though, the figure fell over the ledge.

"How the hell did these cronies get this far?" Barret asked.

"Even cannon fodder can get lucky." Nathan muttered. Vincent noticed him walk a little ways over and bend down to the ground. Coming back up, he saw the red orb in his hand.

"I wonder if this was always here, or if he dropped it. I guess I will never know." he mumbled. He pocketed the summons materia and kept moving with everyone else. However, amongst the sound of swirling wind the group started hearing mechanical swishes. Looking up everyone got a view of a large Grey airship.

"Uh guys." Cait said nervously. "Rufus is here."

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><p>"I finally found you." Rufus could barely contain his excitement. Nothing could have helped him plan for this.<p>

Hojo had finally told Rufus where Sephiroth would end up, the Northern Crater. Rufus was almost furious thinking that Sephiroth was a whole continent ahead of them. But good news came that the Highwind was actually in working condition with a group of competent pilots. The previous day he boarded the airship along with Scarlet and Heidegger to find him. But when he reached the crater he couldn't believe his eyes. Mako was shooting out of the planet! Plentiful, pure, and untouched by human hands.

They had finally found the Promised Land. After his father invested so much to find the location, Rufus now had the place in the palm of his hands.

"Kyaa hah hah hah! This is incredible." Scarlet said, her eyes completely focused on the sight before her.

"This is the Promised Land the president has been searching for!" Heidegger said. This put Rufus in a slightly sour mood. He turned and gave the large man a glare.

"But, I'll be the one who gets it" Heidegger shrunk back and Rufus turned back to the crater. It was he who got here, not his father. He wouldn't let his deceased father take credit for getting him here. After all, if he never became president, his father would never have made the decisions that led to this.

"Sorry, old man." Rufus said. However behind the three executives was a certain scientist laughing to himself.

"Hee hee hee, that land is no ones." He didn't care about their petty greed for Mako. The crater was important, but for entirely different reasons.

"It's where the Reunion will take place... they will all gather here. I wonder if we'll see Sephiroth?" He contemplated, his toothy smile growing wide on his pale, yet slightly green splotched face.

* * *

><p>"Let's go, he will have to find a place to land before he can do anything." Cait said. Everyone complied and started moving out. The cat shook his head while on top of the moogle.<p>

"We need to cross when the wind is calm, otherwise we'll get swept off." Tifa said.

"How can you tell?" Yuffie asked.

"The more wind that is blown, the more Mako is moved in the air. When you can't see it then it's safe." Tifa explained, having already thought out the natural defenses weakness. Sure enough, as the wind died down the green waves started dispersing and everyone crossed, what surprised her was that the wall of wind wasn't that thick. It somehow was concentrated, it was only about twenty or so feet before she couldn't feel the winds. However when she looked ahead she was greeted by a disturbing sight.

An entire line of cloaked figures were slowly traversing the rocky path ahead of them Yet the occasional person would suddenly collapse and stop moving, or continue walking until the just went over a ledge. She could feel her heart break at each one of the people dying.

"The hell is wrong with those idiots?" Barret yelled.

"Hojo is more twisted than I imagined." Red said. Tifa looked over and saw that Aeris was basically in the same state she was in, but she looked more distraught.

"Aeris are you okay?" She asked. Aeris nodded her head a little.

"It's just the closer we get, the clearer I can hear the Lifestream. I'm not used to such clarity since I only heard a few voices at the Ancient city and temple."

"Will you be okay?" Asked Tifa, concerned for her friend.

"I'll be fine; it takes some getting used to." Aeris said. Tifa didn't fully believe her but as long as she thought she was okay than Tifa was fine with it.

Again the group found another wall of wind; however it was stronger and seemed to have an extra wave pass through it.

"Is it magic?" Yuffie asked.

"Probably, just look," Tifa pointed. On the other side of the wall she could clearly see Sephiroth and a few cloaked figures bowing to him.

"Let's go!" Cloud yelled, ignoring the dangerous wind. Tifa and everyone else followed behind and passed the wall. Everyone was tense as Cloud walked behind Sephiroth, sword in hand.

"This is the end... for all of you." In front of everyone he mercilessly cut the two people in front of him, knocking them back off the rocks and into the Lifestream.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud yelled, Tifa looked to see the rage he had built up. She got in her fighting position, ready for anything after seeing the silver haired general take out his minions.

"It's over Sephiroth, it's the end." Tifa said. The man kept his back turned to them.

"You're right...it is the end of this body's usefulness." In front of them, Sephiroth started to turn completely black in color and then vanished right in front of them.

"He just disappeared.?" Barret said, surprised.

"He might still be nearby..." Tifa said, well aware and remembering it wasn't always clear when fighting Sephiroth.

"Our purpose is to bring the Black Materia to our master." A voice said. Everyone circled around and searched for its origin. Looking forward, they saw one of the cloaked figures looking in their direction.

"Our?" Cloud questioned. Tifa was about to respond when the figure spoke again.

"Those who carry Jenova's cells..." That confirmed it for Tifa. Everyone one of these people were ones that had Hojo inject Jenova's cells into them.

"Master?" Cloud said, Tifa knew he was talking to the person now, but when it responded it was almost robotic and devoid of life.

"Of course... Sephiroth... heh heh heh."

"Above us!" Tifa heard Nate yell. Everyone jumped away from their original spots, not a second later Sephiroth had swooped down and slammed his sword into the ground. Tifa got back up quickly but wasn't ready for the new sight in front of her.

Sephiroth started to grow and morph not unlike Vincent but his skin soon became variations of dark purple and black. Soon the large mass of skin took shape and Tifa recognized it as the exact same monster they had fought twice before.

"You know, I'm happy right now, I get to kill this thing a third time!" Barret said, already starting to shoot at the giant mass of flesh. In response the monster had looked at Nate and sent a pulse at him. The attack missed however as Nate didn't take any damage and started moving around with his sword drawn. Aeris had started to cast supporting magic while Cait used his sonic attacks, Cloud hacking at the monster's base with Red assisting him, Vincent with covering fire for Cid, and Yuffie throwing her weapon.

Jenova somehow brushed off the attacks and let loose a red bubble from its mouth towards Red and Cloud. Both were hit and Tifa saw that the bubble burst and had spread what looked like lava onto both of them causing burns to start appearing on their exposed skin.

"Stay away from those!" Cloud yelled, his wounds being ignored as he moved and tried attacking at different angles. Red had come to her for healing. However Nate came up as well and shoved his newest summoning materia to her.

"Nate, you need to cast this." However he didn't respond which confused her. He pointed at Jenova and his mouth making her understand. The pulse attack was a silence spell.

"Nate this is a rocky area we don't have enough room for a summons." He had an angry look on his face before he shoved the materia at her again. Yuffie had jumped back and met them.

"Tifa I need to get healed." She asked. Tifa cast a cure spell and noticed Nate had an odd look in his eye before he grabbed her wrist and made her stop from participating.

"What is it?" Yuffie asked. Nate had turned her and took from her pack another red materia and thrust it to her. Tifa was already skeptical of one summons on the field, but two would endanger everyone of falling off.

"Nate we can't do that." She said. Before she could continue a red flash had suddenly hit the three of them. Tifa was surprised when it actually burned her skin; it was just a flash of light. Yet she looked at her legs and saw some burns on them. But Nate had persisted even after the attack with Yuffie, he was done with her now.

"Fine, Yuffie start casting." Tifa said. The ninja complied and started to focus. Tifa made sure everyone was safe from attacks when she saw Yuffie fall to her knees. She ran up to see her holding her head so she pulled out an ether and gave it to her. While she drank Tifa looked at Nate to see him and his sword ready while he watched the sky. Sure enough the clouds were dark, stormy, and swirling around them.

"What did you cast?" Barret came up to them, using the time to reload.

"I don't know, Nate made me cast it." Yuffie responded. The clouds dispersed when the summons appeared near the ledge. Tifa was completely surprised to see a large dark winged dragon in the skies above them.

"A dragon? We can summon dragons!" Cid said, surprised. Tifa looked at the dragon she knew as Bahamut started to charge a beam of light.

"Everyone get away!" She yelled. Cloud, Red, and Cid got way when the dragon king released its attack. The beam pierced Jenova causing the monster to scream in pain as a good chunk of its body was torn away. Tifa saw the advantage they had when she saw that it wasn't healing well from the summons attack.

"Strike now!" Cloud yelled, having the same plan. But Jenova still had some fight in it and attempted to use its red flash attack. However, because Aeris had cast haste most of the direct line fighters were okay. The only one to really get burned was Nate who had opted to attack now. Cloud got a strike in while Red took more flesh with him in his bites. Barret and Vincent focused on its face. Cait kept his sonic attacks on Jenova while Cid would take jabs with his spear.

After the summons attack Jenova was just too weak to fend off multiple targets. The beast soon started to melt down in front of the team. The screeches from the false Ancient making everyone cringe as it finally bled out and shrunk to death. But as the mass of flesh disintegrated, the whole group was surprised. In the middle was the Black Materia.

"Jenova's cells..." Cloud contemplated. "So that's what this was all about... the Jenova Reunion." This confused Tifa.

"Not Sephiroth? You mean all this time it wasn't Sephiroth we were after?" Cloud shook his head.

"I'll explain later. Right now the only thing I'm thinking about is beating Sephiroth."

"But Sephiroth is..." Tifa tried to think. If all they were fighting were illusions of Sephiroth and just giant masses of Jenova, then what was the point? Where would he be?

"He's here; the real Sephiroth is just beyond here." He pointed forward. Showing everyone would have to go farther into the crater. "It's both cruel and wicked. But it's releasing a powerfully strong will from deep within, the Planet's wound." Cloud walked to the small black orb.

"The Black materia is back in our hands. Now all we have to do is defeat Sephiroth and that will be the end of it."

"We better not take the Black Materia any further. Why don't you give it to someone else to hold onto it?" Tifa suggested. It was a sound idea, but not for obvious reasons. She still remembered how Cloud had simply given it to Sephiroth once before. Even though he was her childhood friend she didn't feel she could risk it.

"Alright then...who's willing?" The only sound Tifa heard from Cloud's request was the wind. She looked to see every last person in the group with a touch of fear on their faces. Even the ever passive Vincent couldn't keep the thought of holding the world's most destructive materia in his hands. Tifa understood though, the person would have to stay behind while everyone else went forward. She looked to Cloud as he sighed, realizing the dilemma as well.

"I'll do it." Tifa's eyes widened when she heard Nathan. The silence spell now gone.

"You seriously want to hold that thing?" Barret asked.

"Nathan you might want to think harder about this." Red said.

"Yeah, even I won't touch that materia." Yuffie added.

"No, someone is going to have to make sure Sephiroth can't use it. No one else is stepping up. I'll do it." He came forward to Cloud, holding out his hand. Cloud went up and placed the materia in Nate's hand and made him cup it with the other.

"Don't give it to ANYONE. We're counting on you Nate." He said seriously.

"I can handle the pressure, you guys go ahead." He said. Tifa noticed a sad look in his eyes. She wanted to console him but they had to move before Sephiroth grew in power.

"Alright Tifa, Barret and myself will go ahead." Cloud said. All of them nodded and the group started moving, leaving Nate and everyone else behind on the rock pad. Tifa took one last look back before she left. Nate smiled and held a thumbs up.

"Don't worry; I am the best guy for the job." Tifa smiled at his now positive demeanor. She ran to catch up with the rest of the group.

* * *

><p>"You think the kid's gunna be alright?" Barret asked, Cloud nodded.<p>

"Nate is strong. If he believes he can handle it than I believe in him." Cloud said. Truth be told, he had worried a little when he was the only one to volunteer to guard the materia. But it was both of their choices and they made it.

"Of course he is. Nate won't let a materia scare him" Barret added, although having feared getting the materia himself.

"He knows what's best. You made the right decision Cloud." Tifa said. Cloud nodded and continued leading the group through the whirlwind like maze. They came upon another wind wall which they passed easily. But when they trekked away from it Cloud saw a flash of light, completely clouding his vision with white.

"What is this? What's happening?" Tifa yelled, apparently experiencing the same thing. He heard several similar remarks from Barret before barking out orders.

"Calm down, its Sephiroth. Be prepared for anything." He kept walking and by the sound of the footsteps he knew everyone was following. Eventually the light died down and they were no longer on the rocky ledge. Instead they were at the entrance of Cloud and Tifa's home town. Something that angered Cloud greatly.

"Nibelheim." Tifa said. The words just above a whisper.

"Why Nibelheim? Are you high on Mako or somethin?" Barret said angrily, confused at what was going on. Cloud shook his head.

"It's just an illusion that Sephiroth made to confuse us." For what purpose he didn't know, but Sephiroth would use every dirty trick in the book to keep them away since he couldn't summon his planet destroying meteor now.

"It'll be alright. As long as we know it's an illusion, there is nothing to be afraid of. Keep going" He said, calming the team down.

"Yeah he's right." Barret agreed, still looking perplexed at the sudden change of scenery.

"Look!" Tifa yelled, Cloud turned to see Sephiroth calmly walking to them. He drew his sword and everyone else had their weapons. But Sephiroth just walked past them. He didn't even acknowledge their presence. He then turned to the three figures following behind him.

"Alright, let's go." Sephiroth ordered. The three figures turned out to be Shinra MP's and one person Cloud didn't recognize.

"Isn't that supposed to be you?" Barret asked. Cloud nodded. He couldn't understand why Sephiroth had just switched him with someone else image. What was the point?

"Sephiroth...stop." Cloud turned to Tifa who was wide eyed and actually very scared. Maybe she knew the man and he was messing with her, but why Tifa? It didn't make any sense. What was the goal behind this?

"This is so stupid." Cloud scoffed. The four figures disappeared and the gang was left alone again..

"I don't like this place, I want to leave." Barret added. Cloud nodded and started moving forward. Tifa soon came up to him.

"Cloud... it's just an illusion. Don't worry about it." He raised an eyebrow. Tifa was looking into this too deeply. He was just annoyed at the attempts to mess with his head. Cloud remembered how he was controlled, and this didn't even compare to what happened before.

Another flash of light, and Cloud found himself and everyone else in the middle of a burning Nibelheim. The fires exactly as they were when he was there.

"It's probably not even me who's going to come out of the mansion. He's going to show us another stupid illusion." Sure enough a figure exited out of the Shinra mansion. The same black haired male from before, taking Cloud's place.

"I don't want to... watch this. Cloud... please don't watch." He ignored Tifa, she was falling for Sephiroth's tricks. He needed to calm her down.

"Tifa what's the matter? I told you before right? As long as we know it's an illusion then it can't hurt us." He said.

"Hey are you alright?" Barret went up to the body of one of the fire victims, when he touched him though, Cloud saw his hand pass right through him.

"That's a good trick," Barret said. Cloud shook his head, he had enough of this.

"Sephiroth! I know you're listening. I know what you want to say! That I wasn't at Nibelheim five years ago. That's it, isn't it?"

"So you finally understand." The man said as he appeared in front of everyone, a devilish smile on his face.

"What you are trying to say is that you want to confuse me, right?" He wasn't as confused as he was at the temple, but Sephiroth tried. In Cloud's mind he failed to do so.

"But... even making me see these things won't affect me. I remember it all! The heat of the fire... the pain in my body... and my heart!" He clenched his fist before pointing at the general, who just shook his head.

"Oh is that so? You are just a puppet... you have no heart... and you cannot feel pain. How can there be any meaning in the memory of such a thing." Sephiroth spread his arms emphasizing the scenery.

"What I have shown you is reality. What you remember... THAT is the illusion... do you understand?" Sephiroth asked. Cloud scoffed.

"I don't want to understand." he said, but Cloud got one idea in his head. Something that he needed to ask to make sense of all this. "But I want to ask. Why... why are you doing this?" Sephiroth vanished and appeared in the middle of the group. Everyone jumped away as he laughed.

"Ha, ha, ha... I wanted to take you back to you real self... the one who gave me the Black Materia that day..." His low baritone voice took a deeper tone, amused.

"Who would have ever thought a failed experiment would prove so useful; Hojo would die if he knew." This served to piss Cloud off more.

"Hojo? What does he have to do with me?" Sephiroth ignored Cloud's yell and brushed some hair out of his face.

"Five years ago... you were constructed. Piece by piece, right after Nibelheim was burnt to the ground. A puppet made up of vibrant Jenova cells, her knowledge, and the power of Mako. An incomplete Sephiroth clone, not even given a number... That is your reality." He was made...like those figures? But wasn't complete?

"Cloud, just close your eyes, please just close them." He shook his head.

"Tifa I'm fine, I'm not affected by his lies." But Tifa just persisted.

"You weren't constructed. Remember everything we did together? The memories we shared as kids?"

"Ha ha ha... Tifa." Sephiroth interrupted. "Why are you so worried, and scared by those words? Shall I show everyone what's in your heart?"

"Tifa, I don't like this, what the hell's going on?" Barret said, his voice rising.

"You don't look like you're feeling well." Sephiroth added. Now Cloud couldn't keep back his thoughts. Tifa was so worried... could what Sephiroth was saying... be true?

"Tifa... Sephiroth is lying... right?" She just looked at him, fear in her eyes.

"Cloud..." she whispered. He shook his head; the illusion was getting to her, that was all.

"Tifa don't worry about me, I'm fine. No matter how confused I am I won't fall for his tricks...I mean...its true I can't figure out who I am at times, a lot of things are muddled up in my memories" He was beginning to doubt himself. But he remembered when he saw Tifa at the train station.

"Remember Tifa... you said how long has it been? The train station? Those words will always support me. I'm Cloud, the one you grew up with at Nibelheim. No matter how much I lose faith in myself, that's the truth." To him the words didn't sound so reassuring; he shook himself out of it.

"That's why you shouldn't be scared. No matter what anyone else says to me, it's your attitude that counts."

"No... That's not true...Cloud." This surprised him; after all he said she still didn't believe him? What wasn't the truth? Was she hiding something?

"What's not? Aren't I the same Cloud you grew up with?" She shook her head, doubt clearly on her face.

"That's not what I mean... I just don't know how to say it."

"Cloud please, your scaring her." Barret said.

"Sephiroth please stop this!" Tifa yelled.

"Cloud, don't blame Tifa." They all turned to see Sephiroth on the steps to the upper part of town.

"The ability to change ones looks, voice, and words, is the power of Jenova." Sephiroth pointed at him.

"Jenova's cells merged inside you with Tifa's memories, creating you. Out of Tifa's memory, a boy named Cloud was just a part of them." Sephiroth disappeared again. Cloud couldn't get it out of his head. He had seen Jenova's power first hand... was Sephiroth... actually telling the truth?

"Cloud... don't think right now." Tifa pleaded.

"Cloud I would listen to her, something is wrong." Barret cautioned.

"Ha ha ha! Think Cloud! Oh, I apologize. Hah ha ha. You never had a name."

"Shut up Sephiroth." His head was hurting; all of these thoughts were making him lose his concentration. He looked to see the man with a disappointed look.

"You still don't understand... then... do you remember that picture we took before going to Mt. Nibel? Tifa you remember, right? But there is no way he'd know... now what happened to that picture?" Sephiroth eyed the false body. He walked up to it and to everyone's shock was able to touch the illusion. He searched the dead man's pockets before he took out a small square paper.

"Yes this is it... do you want to see it?"

"Cloud... don't" Tifa said. Cloud ignored her.

"I should be in the picture. Even if I'm not in there it's just an illusion." Sephiroth tossed the photo to Cloud. As he suspected it had the same black haired man in his place, standing next to Tifa and off the side of Sephiroth. The group looked at the picture. The only one to react was Tifa, who looked very distraught.

"A fake... the truth is in my memory. Five years ago I came back to Nibelheim to inspect the reactor. I was sixteen. The town didn't change at all... what did I do?" Cloud started recollecting, these were his memories, he had it all down.

"Oh yeah...I saw mom, I saw the people in the town. I spent the night and went to Mt. Nibel. I was so excited; it was my first mission after becoming a SOLDIER first class." Yeah, it was amazing when he became a SOLDIER, after all, he had to... had to... had... to...

"...SOLDIER, first class?" Cloud kept drawing a blank. "When did I join SOLDIER?" It was there, it had to be...he had entered by... he was made because... he was the best at... why couldn't he remember?

"How did I join SOLDIER? Why can't I remember!" Cloud clench his head in anger, his brain didn't have anything on it... when had he entered... what he had to do... it was all just absent... maybe...

"That's right… I don't have to worry about it... because I was..."

"Cloud?" Tifa interrupted. He turned to her; he felt a sad smile on his face.

"Let's go Tifa... I'm alright." He was only a puppet after all, he couldn't feel anything.

* * *

><p>After landing Rufus had found a tunnel that lead to the depths of the crater. Inside he could clearly see crystallized Mako as the foundation for the entire complex.<p>

"This is amazing!" Scarlet ran up, her high heels clicking as she eyed the entire cavern, looking at it from top to bottom.

"It's all materia!" She said, seeing the various colored jewels etched into the walls.

"The outside is rich with Mako energy. The inside is a treasure trove of materia. This truly is the Promised Land." Rufus said, calm but filled with utter satisfaction.

"There is no such thing as the Promised Land. It's a legend... an old wives tale. It's utterly ridiculous." Of course Hojo would try to dispute it. A man of science to the end.

"Everything is as I imagined it to be. Isn't it splendid? It is that kind of dullness that makes you a second rate scientist." Before he could argue more, the cavern started to shake. Rufus almost lost his balance and started to look around.

"What is happening?" He yelled, an equally surprised Scarlet looked at the objects in the walls.

"It's coming from inside the wall! It's moving, something's inside." A single giant eye blinked, almost to prove that something was alive. Rufus was scared now; a giant was stuck inside this place and was trying to get out. Yet he was angry also at Hojo who was simply giggling.

"WEAPON... then it really does exist. I didn't believe in it."

"What does it mean?" Rufus asked, trying to comprehend what was happening.

"WEAPON... monsters created by the Planet. It appears when the Planet is in danger, reducing everything into nothingness. At least that is what was stated in Gast's report."

"I never saw this report? Where is it!" Rufus demanded. He needed to know what these things were, if they were a threat, if they protected the Promised Land. The only thing he got was Hojo tapping his head, a smile on his face.

"Right here." Rufus wasn't amused.

"You keep too many things to yourself Hojo."

* * *

><p>So... I have the Black materia now... I can tell why no one wanted the thing. Just holding it I can feel the sinister magic inside of it. I don't get why the Ancients even thought of documenting what it could do. This thing has caused more trouble than it could possibly be worth.<p>

"Nathan, are you okay?" I looked up to see Nanaki looking at me.

"Just thinking about how I'm the only one that should hold this." I said.

"Will your plan work?" He asked. I nodded.

"Sephiroth can only cast illusions now. I know what it's going to be about. And as long as I have you on the outside, I don't have to worry about getting lost." I said, however he didn't seem pleased.

"Then why run away with the materia? Everyone will think you've gone off the deep end." I nodded. That was most likely true.

"Even so, it's the only way I can make sure he can't summon Meteor. Now can you cover me for a short time? I just need five minutes and I should reach the first wind wall"

"Nathan, everyone would worry about you. I know you think you have a good plan. But they would get you and hold you down if you pull this stunt. I know and that's the problem.

"Can't you just ignore the illusion? Just stay put and let it try to convince you?"

"Nanaki even though Sephiroth is going to focus on illusions, it doesn't mean he doesn't have an extra ace up his sleeve. In the game everyone was basically knocked out when the illusion lifted. I doubt that he made images so boring it put everyone to sleep." God damn it.

"Nathan, you need to be calm and concentrate. You can think of something."

"How can I Nanaki? I overlooked one thing in the game, one, and that's you guys are here with me and I am supposed to just run off with the materia. I thought the group ran off and left the one person here! Now I screwed up again... I suck." I can't make a plan worth shit.

"Nate you okay?" I looked over to see Yuffie come up.

"Just a little stressed. Holding the end of the world in my hands right now, all that jazz." I said. Yuffie had a sad look in her eye before she sat next to me.

"Don't be a chicken now; you can do this, it's just one Black orb."

"Yuffie I know for a fact that this is the one materia that you want to be away from. So don't lie to me about it just being an orb."

"Well no one else would take it." She said. I understood, I did wonder why Aeris didn't volunteer though; it's just the temple in a small ball. I looked over to her and saw she had a small pained look on her face.

"Aeris you okay?" I got up, she looked worse than before.

"She's been getting slightly worse over time." Vincent said.

"Just cast a cure spell and be done with it." Cid added. I took out a potion and made her drink it. But she looked exactly the same.

"Aeris, what's wrong?" I shook her; she didn't give me any eye contact. She just clutched her head with her free hand.

"I... can hear it... the Planet... screaming."

"Aeris, it's going to be okay, focus on my voice." I said. It didn't seem to work as she kept mumbling.

"It's too risky... she has to die... they have to be released." Wait... shit she's talking about the WEAPONS.

"Aeris its okay, Jenova and Sephiroth don't have the materia. It's alright." I said, shaking her slightly. She just wouldn't stop.

"Nanaki help me." I asked, I didn't get a response.

"Nanaki please." Again nothing.

"What are you guys..." I turned back to see no one behind me... in fact there was an absence of the rock ledge I was standing on. I look back to see Aeris gone, the same nothingness around me.

"Damn it... too late to do anything." I was caught now. It was only a matter of time before...

"Nate!" Well, speak of the devil's brother and he shall come.

"Tifa." I said neutrally.

"I'm so glad you're here, everyone's waiting up ahead. Cloud's in trouble!" I had to give Sephiroth credit; she looked exactly like Tifa, even showed real emotion.

"I can't leave Tifa, I have to protect the Black Materia." I noticed the world fazed back to normal, sans everyone else.

"Nathan we need back up, everyone is getting hurt. Nanaki is injured." She pleaded. So Sephiroth knew about my friendship with him... what else will he use?

"Tifa I can give you some of my materia, that's it." I said. She grabbed a hold of my arm, surprising me. Either she was solid or that is how good he is.

"We have to leave! Nate don't you care?" She was tearing up.

"You know, in the darkest, sickest, most twisted part of my mind... I'm going to enjoy this." Before she could respond I held up my hand and blew on my fire materia, a flame enveloped Tifa. I heard screaming coming from her for a second before she disappeared.

"Impressive." I heard a very familiar voice behind me. Fusion already drawn I turned and saw Sephiroth not twenty feet from me.

"I must ask, how did you see through it?" I saw he had his sword with him, it could just be a threat.

"I don't need to answer you."

"Very well, it isn't important. What is, is for you to hand over the Black Materia."

" Sorry Sephiroth, but you can't touch me. We got rid of your copy body, and messing up my mind will take quite a lot of energy and time. By then everyone else will figure out something is wrong."

"It is true I can't hold these forever, but you will help deliver the Black Materia."

"You know Sephy I always wondered." I saw the small annoyance in his eyes before walking closer to the rock ledge. "Did you believe you Jenova would kill us this time, is that why you didn't deliver it yourself? Is Cloud your back up plan? I always did wonder why you took the time to play with his mind like you did." He didn't answer; I took it as hitting the nail on the head. I took out the Black Materia and held it over the ledge.

"I could stop all this right now, it would take you years to find this and the world would have more than enough time to eliminate your precious mother and you."

"But you won't." He said matter of factually. Before I could respond he walked a few feet away from me. Suddenly Aeris appeared. "Unless you want her dead." My arm froze for a second before I readied myself.

"You're bluffing." I stated.

"Now why would I? Killing her would please mother... or perhaps your companion." Another one appeared, Nanaki was now lying unconscious in front of me.

"You can't touch them." Even if they were real, he is an illusion. He can't harm anyone.

"Maybe I can, maybe I can't. But would you risk your friend's life? Would you be able to make that decision? The world or a precious person's life?" I knew he was trying to manipulate me, confuse me, I knew Sephiroth damn near in and out. But I wasn't sure. I couldn't know if he had the power or didn't. And I knew I could never make that choice, hell I made sure to avoid it with Aeris before... but now?

"Make your decision quickly." He summoned his sword, it was in the middle of both of them, he was already about to strike.

"Wait." I said. His sword went still. His stone facade cracked with a small grin.

"I won't throw it out... but how can I be sure you won't kill them anyway?" He lifted it.

"You don't...but I suppose since you will all die anyway it won't matter to delay some of your deaths." He said, sure of his success. I walked away from the ledge. At the same time he stepped away from Aeris and Nanaki.

"I still won't do it, you can't make me." I could still hold him off.

"I can't, that's why it is no longer up to you." Almost in a flash he was on me, but having been battling for months now I was able to hold up my sword and block his strike. The same cat like smirk grew wider on him. This wasn't an illusion, he kept his body, we didn't destroy all of him.

"Let's see if you're what mother thought you could be." He made for another slash, I blocked and jumped away, but his speed allowed him to catch up and attack me again. I couldn't get a hit in edgewise, he hit like an anvil, and had the speed to bat at me constantly.

Thinking on my feet I let off a fire spell as he went for another hit. I thought he would dodge but he swept through it, getting a slash on my arm.

"This is it? What did mother see in you?" I ignored him and decided to go directly for my big guns. I channeled my magic through Fusion and let loose an air-slash at him. When it approached he held up his own blade to slice the shock wave away from himself. I took out my Masamune and stabbed it into the ground as he charged again. He went for a slice but with my sword in his way it just swiped the sword, easily breaking it into two, allowing me to get an attack on him, but he reacted fast enough to jump back and for me only to cut his clothing.

"That is it? How can mother even consider you like herself? You're weak, no prowess, even using a cheap imitation... I'm done toying." I held up my sword to parry his own when he went for a jab and disappeared, reappearing on my right and switching to take a hit to my back. Unguarded I felt the full force of it and fell to one knee, holding in my yells.

"Pitiful, the puppet surrounds himself with weaklings and then believes they can help him kill me, the Planet's new god."

"You're nothing more than a puppet yourself." I said, my bitterness getting the better of me.

"How so? I am mother's favorite, I am the strongest in the whole world."

"Do you really think Jenova cares for you? You're just a host, a medium for it to use so it can get what it wants." I saw him narrow his eyes before he flicked his sword, making a deep gash in another part of my body.

"Mother needs me; I am the only one who can help her fulfill her dreams and mine." I spat out some blood.

"Mother... I wonder Sephiroth, do you want to know who your birth mother was?" Another strike to my side, I clenched my teeth before continuing. "Perhaps your father... oh how you would surely hate me then."

"You know nothing of my past." He said coldly, I just smiled.

"You always felt different as a kid... special in a way. You advanced quickly into SOLDIER, becoming the general. People revered you... except two. Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley were two first classes that were considered your friends. Both who were also genetic monsters of Jenova." I said, and felt the smallest amount of pleasure when I didn't get cut, and the widening of Sephiroth's eyes.

"It was Genesis that caused you to go insane you know, back at the reactor. If he hadn't said you were an experiment that your life was a lie, you would have never met Jenova and she never would have been able to use you." I was pulled up by my collar, my feet grazing the ground as Sephiroth lifted me with ease.

"You know nothing." I saw the anger in his eyes, the one emotion he really could show. I smiled, I don't know what came over me, but taunting him was the only thing that was keeping him away from the Black Materia.

"You know those books you read about Jenova are a lie too. We found out the truth. Your mother is the Calamity From the Sky, you're no Ancient, you're the exact opposite." I felt his grip tighten.

"You will be silent."

"Like I care, apparently you can't touch the materia yourself now, you need someone to take it, and it isn't me. Your work is a bust Sephiroth. Your mother is a complete sham; you want to know who your real parents were?" I was thrown to the ground, I finally yelled when I felt a rib crack. I could still breathe.

"You were born from Lucrecia Crescent, a scientist that studied Jenova... and your father? He was none other than Hojo. The very man you hate offered you as a test subject for Jenova cells!" My breath was cut short when I felt a slash across my chest. Sephiroth looked at me with cold eyes.

"I am tired of your lies." He stabbed his sword in my chest multiple times, not deeply, just enough to puncture and make me bleed more. I could feel my body start to slow down from the blood loss. I looked down and saw the Black Materia on the ground. I looked back up to see Sephiroth with his sword not an inch from my face.

"I fucking dare you." I said. I didn't care anymore, I tried to fight him, but even a clone is too strong for me. I was in over my head in this. Cloud and everyone else would win without me, I was confident. I looked into Sephiroth's eyes and stared him down. Yet he pulled his sword away.

"No...I think it is better you suffer." I wanted to question but I saw him unravel the illusion around the area. Everyone else was on the ground.

"I will break you, as I have the puppet." I saw his body morph. Finally I felt terrified. He had turned into a copy of me and another Tifa appeared. I saw and everybody had woken up. They were confused until Sephiroth spoke.

"Guys its horrible!" The fake Tifa yelled.

"What? Wait, what happened?" Cid said, panicking.

"It's Tifa, she needs our help." the false me said, I looked to see everyone focusing on them and not me, somehow I was covered up by Sephiroth.

"We need to help Cloud quickly, he's having problems."

"Wait a minute what's going on?" Yuffie yelled as the false Tifa ran off.

"Nathan where is the Black Materia?" Vincent asked, the fake me looked around.

"I don't know, Tifa startled me, I don't have time to talk guys they need our help."

"It's right here." It was Yuffie who picked up the materia. She was not two feet away from me and I couldn't speak, and she couldn't see me.

"Yuffie, bring it with. We can't have it fall into anybody's hands." Why wasn't Nanaki stopping this? Why wasn't he questioning it?

"Something's wrong with these two!" I heard Cait yell. I looked to see Nanaki and Aeris both still unconscious, I cursed. Sephiroth had made it so both of them were asleep, I guess revealing them would have woken them up if he didn't do anything.

"Carry them, we can catch up. Come on." I wanted to yell out, everyone was moving forward. Sephiroth's plan was still in effect. No one was wise to his plan. When everyone was gone I saw the false me with a smile.

"No matter what you do, I will become god. Know that you failed as you die." The image soon started to morph again; a cloaked figure was in front of me, which then fell to the ground dead.

Sephiroth bested me... he got me good... I could already feel my consciousness slipping, but I didn't want to go. I wanted to keep fighting. I didn't want to die, or be controlled by my insanity. Everything was against me again. But I didn't want to give up now of all times.

I grabbed my broken sword and Fusion. I barely had any strength in my arms, they were hit the most. I used the two blades as leverage as I lifted myself up. I took a breath and took one step, then another, then another, then another...

* * *

><p>"Mr. President, I have a bad feeling about this." Scarlet said. The shaking had finally stopped but the executive was still scared.<p>

"Maybe we should go back to the ship? We need to prepare for inspection anyway." Rufus said, covering the fact he too was a little frightened at the large creature next to him. But before he could move a light flashed in the room. All three Shinra representatives covered their eyes until it died down. When they opened them, they saw three AVALANCHE members suddenly standing with them.

"Hey! Where did you come from?" Scarlet yelled, Cloud lifted his head and looked around the chamber.

"...I don't know..." He turned to Rufus, a dead look in his eye. "This place is going to get rough. You need to leave things to me and get out of here while you can." Rufus scoffed.

"Leave things to you? Hmph...I don't know what you mean." Cloud looked away and then at his feet. His tone getting more depressed.

"This is where the Reunion is happening. Where everything begins and ends."

"Cloud!" Tifa yelled, yet no one responded to her. Cloud looked up hearing footsteps, only to see the rest of the group here now.

"Cloud what do you need help help... shit! Shinra's here." Cid said, at the front with his spear ready. Cloud looked at the group before he held his head in his hands. He felt like crying, he got to see his friends one last time.

"Thanks guys... do you have the Black Materia?"

"Yeah, Nate gave it to me. He's right behind us" Yuffie said.

"I'll take it from here... give it to me." Yuffie pulled out the materia and handed it to Cloud.

Tifa yelled again but saw not even the rest of the group was acknowledging her. Cloud walked back to the center of the room.

"Everyone, thanks for everything. And... I'm sorry." He said, confusing the group. He faced Rufus.

"...Sorry." He then turned to face Tifa, surprising her.

"Especially you, Tifa. I'm really sorry. You've been good to me... I don't know what to say... I never lived up to being Cloud. Tifa... Maybe one day you'll meet the real Cloud." Tifa couldn't hold it in anymore. She started crying, no one being able to hear her or Barret in the room

"Ha, ha, ha... this is perfect! It means that my experiment was a complete success!" Hojo yelled, excited. He faced Cloud, almost gleefully looking at the depressed man

"What number were you? Huh? Where is your tattoo?" Cloud shook his head sadly, staring at his feet.

"Professor Hojo... I don't have a number. You didn't give me one because I was a failed experiment." Hojo looked appalled when he heard this. He turned, anger clearly written on his face.

"What the...? You mean only a failure made it here?"

"Professor... please give me a number. Please, Professor..." Cloud pleaded. Hojo just turned and looked him in the eye.

"Shut up, miserable failure..." In front of everyone Cloud finally broke down and screamed, his body starting to levitate as he got louder, finally shooting him up to the ceiling of the room. Rufus was completely confused; this wasn't the same person they had been following.

"Who...was that?" He mumbled out loud.

"...He's a Sephiroth-clone I created after the real Sephiroth died five years ago. Jenova cells and Mako, with my knowledge and skills, have been combined with science and nature to bring him to life. I'm not wild about the failure part, but the Jenova Reunion Theory has now been proven. You see, even if Jenova's body is dismembered, it will eventually become one again. That's what is meant by Jenova's Reunion. I have been waiting for the Reunion to start. Five years have passed, and now the Clones have begun to return. I thought the clones would begin to gather at Midgar where Jenova was stored, but my predictions were not entirely correct. Jenova itself began to move away from the Shinra Building."

All the while Hojo explained. Cloud was traversing the giant root in the ceiling, looking at it intensely.

"_Show yourself Sephiroth, I'm here. I brought you the Black Materia."_

"But being the genius that I am, I soon figured it out. You see, it was all Sephiroth's doing. Sephiroth is not just content to diffuse his will into the Lifestream; he wants to manipulate the Clones himself."

Cloud walked up to the crystal. Looking inside.

"_Finally. We meet again Sephiroth." _The root in the ceiling now let down the giant crystal it carried to show everyone what was inside. Sephiroth, or what was left of him, as there was only the upper bodily portion of himself left. The entire room started to shake, Rufus and Scarlet already long gone. The only ones left being AVALANCHE and Hojo staring at the ceiling.

"Do you see it! It's Sephiroth! He is here! This is perfect! Both Jenova and Sephiroths will be diffused by the Lifestream and gather here." The mad doctor yelled excitedly. Tifa looked appalled at the man.

"What are you so happy about? You know what this means don't you? Cloud has the Black Materia! Sephiroth is going to summon Meteor and we're all going to die!" Hojo ignored her, simply babbling how he was a true genius.

"Whatever, I say it's too little too late. We must evacuate." All turned to see Rufus at the entrance. "I want you all to come with me. There is still much more I want to hear." The group was on guard, they couldn't possibly trust Rufus on a whim, but they needed an escape, and the only safe one was the Highwind.

"Cloud, get down, we have to leave!" Tifa yelled. The blond man looked down but turned away.

"Cloud listen! We have two injured teammates! We have to go." Cloud just shook his head more. He looked at the Black Materia in his and sighed. He placed it into Sephiroth's Mako surroundings. The materia drifted until it was in the center of his torso before it started to pulsate. The room started shaking; the ceiling cracked and started to fall apart.

"Cloud get down!" Tifa yelled, before she could try again Barret grabbed her.

"We need to leave, we can't stay!" Tifa didn't want to go, she wanted to get Cloud, make him see what really happened, why she hid so many things from him. "Come on!" Barret pulled harder, forcing her to run. Outside they ran down until the saw the Highwind ready to fly.

"Wait? Where's Nate?" Yuffie yelled.

"Why isn't he behind us?" Vincent said, urgency in his voice.

"We have to find him before its too late!" Cait yelled.

"You either get on now or you get left behind, the pilots done." Rufus yelled, climbing onto the airship.

"We can't leave without him!" Yuffie yelled.

"HELP!" Everyone heard, they looked over and saw Nate, bloody, beaten, and exhausted. He was completely fine the last time they saw them. Now he was the worst out of them.

"Shit the kid ain't gunna make it" Cid said. Yuffie shook her head.

"He just needs help." Yuffie ran, ignoring the group's cries. She went up the hill and across the rocky paths. The shaking ground made everything harder to move on since it was falling apart. She ran up to Nathan, seeing him use his two swords as canes.

"Nathan come on, we have to go." She pulled his arm, he groaned loudly and she let go.

"Yuffie...I'm too tired...I can't walk anymore." He panted. Yuffie ignored him.

"You had enough getting this far, you can take a few more, now run!" She took his hand and he complied. Both stumbled through the now even more dangerous rock paths as they ran as fast as they could. Yuffie was slowed down now; Nate was more wounded than expected. He limped the entire way, making it take longer than needed.

"Nate just a few more steps, I can see the ship." But she felt her heart sink when the Highwind started to take off. It was flying next to the platforms but was about to go higher.

"Nate we have to jump." She said, taking his swords and putting them back on his back.

"Yuffie, I don't have the strength..."

"Yes you do! You got through that blizzard, you can get through this! Now run as fast as you can and jump with me." She backed the both of them up as the Highwind got closer. Soon it was level with their platform.

"Run!" Yuffie sprinted as she tried to help Nate along, who did his best to keep up. Both reached the ledge and jumped, Yuffie had landed just off the edge of the ship where everyone else was. Nate though fell short; he barely touched the safety guards before he started to plummet. Reacting Yuffie grabbed his hand as his momentum switched and he slammed into the ship. His scream of pain causing Yuffie to cringe.

"It's okay I got you." She said. She tried to pull his one arm up when he slipped in her hands with all of his blood coating it.

"Nate, give me your other arm." She struggled to say, his dead weight already having an effect on her.

"It's no use...its broken, I can't move it Yuffie." He said, she heard the sadness in his voice but ignored it.

"Nate just put your strength into it. I need help here!" She yelled. She tried to pull him up again but was stopped when she looked at the exploding energy coming from below. Several large monsters, hundreds of stories high were coming out of the crater now. She saw a blue monster with a fish like face crawl and eventually launch itself out. Another was a giant white monster with red eyes slowly exiting.

"The fuck are those!" Yuffie heard Barret say.

"God damn look at the size of those things!" Cid said.

"By the Goddess..." The rest of the group including Yuffie saw a Shinra MP drop his gun before looking up. Another monster, but it was flying and right next to the Highwind.

"Get the pilot to change course. Now!" Rufus yelled. Before the airship could do so, the monster roared before a blue aura surrounded it. Suddenly the dragon like monster flew away, the shockwave from the flight rocking the Highwind.

"Oh god!" Yuffie yelled, she lost her footing and almost fell with Nate, the only thing keeping her from falling where her legs tangled in the bars.

"Yuffie...just drop me." She heard Nate say.

"No, we can still do this!" She yelled. Nathan shook his head.

"They can't save both of us Yuffie... listen. When you're all out and you have the Highwind... talk to Nanaki, he'll know what to do."

"Nathan what's wrong with you?" She tried to lift his arm and surprisingly he started to lift himself up. She was almost ecstatic.

But instead of trying to get himself up to the bars he leaned forward, and kissed her. Her eyes widened when he did and he pulled back, smiling.

"I needed that, after all I can't take you on that date now, can I?" She couldn't process what he did, he had kissed her and he sounded like he was...

"No Nate, you're not giving up. You have to own up on that kiss. You aren't going anywhere!" She said angrily, tears running down her face. He just smiled at her.

"It was really fun Yuffie, I know you guys will get through this... goodbye." He let his grip on her relax. His weight and slick arm making it so Yuffie couldn't hold onto him anymore. She felt her fingers slip as she watched Nate close his eyes and fall to the giant Mako pool below. She wanted to scream, she wanted to yell. But all she could do was stare as he fell.

"Don't worry I gotcha!" She felt her legs get pulled up as Cid brought her back on board. He saw the empty look in her eyes. He looked over the edge and saw the small figure in the air. He realized right away what happened and sighed.

"I'm sorry kiddo..." Cid said. The only words that he could think of to comfort her.

"What happened, where's Nate!" Barret asked, she looked at both Yuffie and Cid before he thought of the answer himself.

"You mean..."

"He fell... he let go... with that stupid smile..." Her eyes were flowing now, she didn't care. She fell on the airships bridge and cried. The only sound drowning her out was the propellers of the flying ship, as it distanced itself from the crater. Anyone conscious thinking about about the lose of two friends.


	35. Chapter 35

A/N Pumped out another chapter, awesome. You know i have realized you guys seem to appreciate my stuff more than i do. Every time i ask for my chapter to get revised and i feel like i did sub par work you all still love it. I find this really hard to believe, seriously is this that good? i just want literal confirmation on this because almost every other chapter i expect some kind of constructive criticism and i have only had like three of those types of reviews.

Anyway enough rambling, you guys want to get to see what happens next right? well go on, read. Move those eyes left to right and back to the left so you can go down and continue, and maybe go back up a sentence because you were like "wait i skipped something" and then have to search the entire paragraph to remeber where that sentence was.

* * *

><p>Ch 35<p>

She looked all around herself, nothing but darkness as far as her eyes could see. She couldn't remember how she got here, or where "here" was, but it felt as if hours had passed and she still couldn't find a way out.

"I hope everyone is okay," She mumbled to herself. She didn't want to find anyone else around here, but she didn't want to be alone either. After all, this place was so vast... and empty.

Looking around she noticed an odd shade of yellow in the distance. Being the only odd change she started walking toward it. As she got closer she noticed the blue suit start to come into her view, as well as a very familiar sword.

"Cloud? ...Cloud!" Tifa called; happy someone was here with here. She started running towards him.

"Cloud!" He got up, and started walking away. Tifa panicked and started running faster, but no matter how fast she was he seemed to get further and further away. Soon enough he was disappearing from her view until he was just a speck in the distance. When she was surrounded by darkness again she finally collapsed. She wanted to keep running, but she would never have caught up. She started tearing up, remembering how she fell the same way at the cave when Cloud had snapped, making her feel helpless and useless.

"...I didn't know what to do... I was always like that..." She remembered when she saw Cloud again at the train stop being helped out by some stranger. She was so happy when she remembered it had been so long since he left Nibelheim. But when he talked to her, he said it had been only four years since she last saw him, when it was seven. She hadn't seen him since the day he went to join Shinra, but he remembered different. When she got to talk about him she realized something was wrong with him. All the things he should have known, but didn't, and all of the things he did but shouldn't have. It concerned her, he was a friend and something was wrong with him. That's why she had offered him the job in AVALANCHE, he was going to leave her and she couldn't let him go out on his own. In the end they had dragged along Nathan and everything took off more or less.

Tifa decided to open her eyes, but she was greeted by a sudden flash of white as well as the feeling she was lying down now. She shut her eyes immediately and groaned. She felt someone on her side but she was comforted when he spoke.

"You okay?" She knew Barret's voice well enough to tell where ever she was.

"The glare..."

"You'll be better soon; you've been asleep a long time." He said.

"I'm...hungry..." She realized how weak she sounded and the fact that she was indeed hungry, in fact starving

"Hey, why don't you ask... about him." She closed her eyes at the reminder. She didn't want to ask that so soon. She didn't feel ready for it.

"...Because I'm scared." She leaned up, noticing they weren't on the airship anymore. She was on some kind of operating table in a room with the shades drawn.

"Don't worry; I don't know what happened to Cloud either." He walked over, but looked away and scratched his head. "I guess I shouldn't tell you not to worry, no one knows if he's alright."

"He's still... alive, right?" Barret didn't answer, unsure himself of their blond leader's condition.

"How long was I asleep?" Tifa asked, judging from the room and lack of movement they weren't on the Highwind, so they had to have had time to land.

"Lessee... must have been at least seven days." He said. For a whole week she was knocked out. Which meant she missed out on too much.

"What about Sephiroth?"

"You ain't over it yet?" Barret said, walking closer. "Remember that huge light at the Northern Cave? Since then the craters been surrounded by a huge barrier of light. Everyone knows Sephiroth sleeps in that big hole, protected by the barrier. We can't do a damn thing about it either; we gotta wait till he wakes up." Tifa slowly sat up more and put her legs over the medical table, Barret continued

"On top of that, some huge monster called WEAPONs been on a rampage."

"WEAPON?" Tifa asked.

"Remember that huge monster that was at the bottom with Sephiroth? Well it's up here now; they say it's some legendary monster of the past." Tifa slowly remembered the videos back at Icicle Inn, the giant creatures made to fight Jenova. But what changed so they helped him? Did he possibly gain control?

"WEAPON... is protecting Sephiroth?"

"Don't know, but he's up here goin around and tearing shit up. Right now Rufus is fighting it. Hate to say it, but the man has guts." Tifa agreed, anyone who was willing to fight off the Planet's personal arsenal had to be stupid, psychotic, or had balls of mythril.

"We shoulda been the ones to destroy it. But we don't have time..."

"Time... what about Meteor?" She asked. Barret looked at her before waving his hand to come closer. He pressed a button on the side of the wall that raised the blinds.

In the middle of the sky was a giant hunk of rock, surrounded by swirling red energy and already closer to the planet than the moon. Tifa stood in shock and awe at the mass aimed at the world, bent on nearly destroying it.

"Do we have to give up?" She asked. Sephiroth was alive, Meteor had been called, and now they were most likely captured from what it looked like. To Tifa it basically spelled out doom for everyone.

"...dunno." Barret mumbled, almost to himself.

"Barret, where is everyone else?" Tifa asked, knowing they were the only two in the room.

"They got away; I guess that's something... Aeris was taken to another cell..." He started, remembering what happened and telling Tifa.

* * *

><p>A day and a half had already passed and AVALANCHE was on edge. Tifa was out like a light after her fall, Aeris and Red were thrown in with the rest of them when they woke up, and now they were confined to one room before their arrived in Junon.<p>

"I can't believe this shit." Cid said, about to light his smoke but gave up and put it away.

"We failed... we couldn't stop him." Aeris said, looking at the floor.

"And now we lost two members." Vincent noted. Barret didn't want to be reminded. Cloud was hard enough to abandon, but he looked over and saw Yuffie just spacing out and looking at his blood coated arm, still shocked at Nate being dropped in the crater.

"Yeah, hear about this my ass; Rufus just wanted us locked up." Cid kept ranting, Barret just kept quiet. He didn't know how to take the whole situation.

"What are they going to do?" Aeris asked.

"Imprison us maybe, it's hard to tell, everything's hectic." Red said.

"Shouldn't that Holy have done something by now? I mean you prayed to it, why hasn't Meteor blown up already?" Cid asked Aeris, she shook her head.

"I don't know, every time I ask all I hear is the Planet crying. It believes that it's doomed... I can't convince it otherwise." She tucked in her knees and wrapped her arms around herself. Barret could tell Aeris was scared, and this time she didn't put up a happy or caring face. She had genuine sadness and fear in her eyes.

Suddenly the door to the cabin opened and in walked Rufus, Hojo, and a small group of guards.

"Have you all been enjoying your stay?" Rufus asked, no one responded, the man sighed.

"We will be arriving in Junon in one hour. I would like you all to be obedient and allow my men to escort you to your new arrangements."

"Well shit, might as well just kill us now." Barret said. Rufus shook his head.

"We still need a few of you to answer questions, as well as-"

"Bah. Just let me see the girl." Hojo interrupted, Rufus just nodded. Barret now noticed how different the scientist looked. All of his skin had a sickly green tint to it, along with some spots having a darker shade, his forehead was more pronounced, and his hair had fallen out front. Barret stop analyzing and almost jumped from his seat when he forcefully grabbed Yuffie.

"What do you think you're doing?" Cid demanded, his fists up and ready to attack.

"Just collecting what I want." Hojo had pulled out a small vial and cloth. He had kept hold of Yuffie's struggling arm surprisingly well since he wasn't even half as muscular as her. He used the cloth to wipe off every last bit of blood from her arm and put it in the vial.

"Are you happy now?" Rufus asked, clearly irritated. Hojo smiled.

"I have what samples I could obtain from the anomaly, they will suffice." Hojo walked out, confusing the rest of the group.

"Samples, the hell was he talking about?" Barret spoke up again.

"Personally I want the blood to see who your friend really was, quite the puzzle he has made." Rufus said, confusing him.

"What are you talking about?" Yuffie asked, having talked for the first time in the last few days.

"You know we had files on all of you, birth dates, known family, even past run-ins with Shinra. Nathan River however we had no such file, in fact he never existed anywhere." This stumped Barret. One of his allies didn't technically exist? How was that possible? He could have been on the run from Shinra or someone, but even he didn't know of anyone having their records wiped that clean unless they had the money and power to do so.

"I'm sure you're now thinking about who your dead friend really was. I must go, I'll let you all come to terms and grieve your lost comrades... however you must come with us." Rufus and his guards took Aeris out of her seat. She didn't struggle, knowing she couldn't do much. But that didn't stop Barret.

"Get your hands awa-" Barret was shortly smashed in the face with the butt of a rife, forcing him back down, and Aeris being walked out by the president.

"Great, another member down." Cid said. Barret rubbed his face.

"What the hell are they going to do?" Barret asked.

"Not sure... she might be sent back to Midgar to finish the experiments." Barret seethed at Vincent's explanation, considering it being highly possible.

"And what was it about Nate never existing?" Cid added.

"Never existed?" Yuffie said.

"Is that even possible? Hey darkness, can someone just be born and not be recorded by Shinra?"

"It's almost impossible. Shinra is Gaia's main powerhouse of government. All records of anyone would eventually be copied and sent to them."

"Even Cosmo Canyon sends in the birth and death dates." Red added, looking uncomfortable in the conversation.

"So did he get his record wiped or something?" Cid asked, Vincent shook his head.

"That is Turk territory, Shinra's forte is censorship after all. But he would have had a Turk following him for the rest of his life just to make sure his identity was kept a secret. Even then he would have been registered as someone else." Vincent explained.

"So we'll never know." Yuffie said.

"I don't give a shit. Nate was our friend..." Barret said. He was at first suspicious of the kid when they first met. But having traveled with him, Barret knew he was a good guy. He apparently lied about being from Mideel but he knew a lot about saving the planet, fighting monsters and their weaknesses, and cracking a joke here and there. A sudden jolt jarred everyone out of their thoughts and made them look around.

"Looks like we're here." Red said, standing and stretching.

"Damn it, we can't let them haul us off like this. We should at least put up a fight!" Cid said.

"They took our weapons and materia, we can't do anything." Yuffie said.

"We gotta try somethin. Think guys, we need to bust out of here." Barret said, standing.

"I am not completely hindered." Vincent got up and got close to the door, he motioned for Barret to get near. He held up his hand to show his five fingers outstretched when they bent down. When he reached zero he pulled his gauntlet back and smashed it through the cabin door.

"Move." He said simply. Barret complied and went out to knock out the MP guarding the door with a quick hit. He motioned for everyone else to move out to the hallway.

"I know this place like the back of my hand. I know where they'd put the weapons." Everyone unconsciously followed Cid as they ran through the hallways, making sure to avoid any more Shinra personnel.

"Right... here." Cid opened a door revealing the weapon storage room, filled with all of their items.

"Good, we have something to defend ourselves with." Red said, grabbing a few materia along with Yuffie snatching the rest in a bag. Vincent took his gun and stocked up on bullets while Cid grabbed his spear.

"Now how do we get off?" Barret asked.

"There are multiple rope ladders to go down on. I know one is in the back of here," Cid mused, rubbing his chin and remembering how the airship worked.

"What about Aeris? We have to go back to pick up Tifa too." Red said.

"I don't know where they would hold her." Cid responded.

"We can't search the entire place, she could be anywhere." Vincent said.

"We are not leaving anyone behind," Yuffie spoke up, a very dark tone in her voice. Barret tried to think up something but he kept coming up with blanks. They needed to get away, but abandoning their friends just wasn't an option. The only way this would work out would be a rescue mission being planned afterwards.

"Then I'll stay." Everyone looked at Barret. "You guys take my gun and materia. I'll stay to keep tabs on Tifa and Aeris since she'd slow us down and we don't know where the other is."

"I don't like this Barret." Red said. Barret just handed his gun to Vincent and walked out.

"I'll distract them for a while and run around while you guys get away. I know you all can plan something while you're all out. The three of us can survive until you all come back." He said. He looked at the remainder of the group as they contemplated over his idea.

"Stay safe big guy. We'll be back; I have to take my ship back after all." Cid said, a smile on his face.

"We'll make sure to find a way to get you all out." Red added.

"They can't keep us all down forever." Yuffie said with a smirk.

"Don't make things worse for yourself." Vincent finished. Everyone looked at Barret's smiling face. They all ran out the room while Barret started running in the opposite hall and yelling, making sure to give his friends more time.

* * *

><p>"Guards finally caught me and started yellin at me to tell them where they all went. I didn't budge and they just moved us here, nothing much has happened till now." He finished, Tifa showing a thoughtful look.<p>

"Nathan... didn't exist?" Tifa spoke up.

"Not according to them." Barret looked at her, seeing the sadness that another person was most likely dead. Both heard a click and turned around to the door. President Rufus now in the room.

"And here I thought Cloud would show up to save you all... Hojo wanted to check up on him and Nate too."

"What are you going to do to Cloud and Nate?" Tifa asked, eyes narrowed.

"We can't do much since the latter is now dead." Tifa's eyes narrowed. Rufus saw and made a smug look.

"In any case, Sephiroth's alter ego is now gone. Meteor has been summoned, so it's all over now... so there is no need for you... No, maybe there is an important task for you still." Just then a large man walked in behind Rufus.

"Mr. President! Preparations for the public execution are complete." Heidegger announced.

"Execution?" Barret turned back and yelled. "What the hell are you gunna get for executing us?"

"You are to be executed for causing this situation. People are ignorant; they'll feel better as long as somebody is punished.

"I take back what little praise I had for this jackass!" He said, holding his gun-less arm as if wanting to fire. Rufus brushed it off.

"Well enjoy your last moments together." Rufus left the room to both AVALANCHE members relief, but it was cut short when Heidegger laughed.

"I'll tie your arms now." Shortly after both were being escorted through the many hallways of Junon. Both Barret and Tifa looked around the area for weak points. Yet there was always a contingent of MP's and even a few SOLDIERs here and there. Having followed Heidegger they arrived into a large room filled with chairs, a few reporters, and Scarlet standing in front of a podium with multiple mikes and behind her a wall with the Shinra logo enlarged and painted in the middle.

"Everyone here, these are the ones who brought this madness into the world!" Every reporter turned and started taking pictures of Tifa and Barret. Tifa had remained straight faced and silent about the ordeal, Barret was willing to be more vocal.

"The hell are these people?" Barret looked around.

"We will be broadcasting your miserable deaths live on national television." Scarlet said, starring more at the camera than at the two of them. In the seat closest to her, one very large reporter in an overcoat and fedora hat that covered his face held his mike up.

"Scarlet, why a public execution in this day and age?" He asked. Barret and Tifa noticed the voice had a familiar... accent to it that they couldn't place. Scarlet walked and motioned for the camera to follow her.

"With the chaos resulting from Meteor reports, we desperately need to rally public support. Its better we punish somebody, anybody."

"You make me sick." Tifa said, making a disgusted look at Scarlet while the camera panned over to her.

"Ha ha ha. They'll never admit it, but everyone loves this stuff!" Scarlet said, before she could continue another reporter stood up.

"But what about the supporters for AVALANCHE? All the way from Midgar to Cosmo Canyon there are people saying that AVALANCHE has only supported the people." Scarlet sneered before recomposing herself.

"Eco-terrorists like AVALANCHE will always have a few people supporting them, saying they are trying to help. But they are just that. Terrorists that need to be punished for their crimes. Starting with her." She pointed at Tifa. Barret struggled with his hands and started yelling.

"If you gotta do it... do me first!" He offered. He couldn't let Tifa be taken out before they could have been rescued. Whatever it was he would be able to last longer than her.

"Camera, this way! Make sure you get this. The audience just eats up tearful goodbyes!" Barret looked straight at the man in front of him.

"Get that camera outta my face!" He promptly bashed his head into the device, causing the man to stumble back and multiple MP's come up to restrain him.

"Take her away." Scarlet ordered. More MP's came and took Tifa's arms and followed Scarlet to the next hallway and into another room. It was completely metallic, with a very bulky and metal chair off to the side. Scarlet got behind Tifa and pushed her in front of the chair, angering the dark haired girl even more.

"What are you doing?" Scarlet came over and began to take off her handcuffs.

"This is my special gas chamber. Take your time, and enjoy a slow painful death." Scarlet said, she pushed Tifa into the chair and the MP started hooking her hands and legs into it. Scarlet looked at the defiance in Tifa's face and became annoyed.

"Stuck up bitch." Scarlet pulled her hand back and slapped Tifa across her face. Satisfied, she left the room along with the MP. Tifa had kept her head down but looked up when she heard a cling on the ground. Not ten inches from her foot was the key to the cuffs binding her to the chair. Later, Barret saw Scarlet enter the room again and faced the camera once more.

"Well now the shows about to begin! Ha ha ha!" Scarlet laughed haughtily. But suddenly a large blaring noise filled the room, a man's voice now on an intercom.

"Emergency! Emergency! WEAPON's approaching! Attention all military personal; take your positions!"

"Oh no! It's WEAPON!" One reporter yelled, dropping his camera and making a break for the exit.

"RUN!" Another yelled, making the entire room charge out besides the MP's holding Barret and the odd fat reporter.

"Hey. Hey, all of you! Damn it why now?" Scarlet seethed, having lost her few minutes of fame. But the reporter from before pulled his mike out and held it up to her.

"How does it feel now, Scarlet?" He asked. Scarlet looked at him as if he were crazy, but then smirked.

"You didn't run away, I'm impressed. How do I feel right now..." She was about to answer but the mike let out a small green mist that entered her nostrils, making her fall to the floor.

"Huh, sleeping gas?" Barret mumbled. The man then tore of his coat and fedora, revealing a cat bouncing on top of a Mog.

"Intruder!" one of the guards screamed, both attempted to attack Cait but Barret tripped one and started kicking him while he was down. The other was about to shoot at Cait when the Mog grabbed the man and lifted him into the air and threw him on top of the other guard.

"Sleep tight!" He put his mike into both of their faces while they were down and they were both out like a light. Barret looked at the cat who was smiling.

"I came to help!" He couldn't believe that the cat that abandoned everyone on the ship was in front of him.

"Why you? Aren't you a part of Shinra?" He asked. The cat kept his smile.

"Let's just say I'm against capital punishment. Besides..." He gestured toward the sleeping Scarlet. "I hate that broad. Now come on, we got to help Tifa." Cait handed Barret his gun arm, he attached it and was given some bullets as well.

"I'll keep watch at the entrance." He nodded and let Cait pass him. Barret went over to Scarlet, seeing if he could find the key to the gas room. He was shocked when he didn't find one though.

"Fools... I already... pressed the switch..." Scarlet said sleepily. Barret's eyes widened when he looked at the big screen, seeing Tifa's still body. He ran up to the door and started pulling as hard as he could. But it was sealed shut.

"I can't open it!"

* * *

><p>Heidegger ran down the computer room, seeing his boss at the end looking out of the giant window.<p>

"It's WEAPON!" He said, breathing heavily. Rufus kept staring out the window.

"There have been so many attacks recently, are you sure we can handle this?" The president asked, his calm demeanor not faltering even a little.

"I believe so, orders?" Heidegger asked. Rufus gave an odd chuckle.

"No need to ask." Heidegger nodded. Seeing military personnel arrive, he saluted the president.

"We'll give it a shot from our big cannon!" He turned to the personnel and threw his fist in the air, almost ecstatic. "Open cannon doors! Activate cannon. Target: WEAPON!" All of the men saluted to Heidegger and began running the computers in the room.

"Starting safety protocols!" One yelled.

"Secondary anti-ship missiles are online and ready to fire sir!" Another yelled.

"Changing trajectory coordinates!"

"Powering up Mako reactor!"

"Junon is encased and shielded from harm!"

"Troops in position, weapons at the ready, standing by."

"Mako reactor producing at optimal capacity!"

"Sister Ray locked on to target!"

"Sir, preparations are complete!" Amongst all of the fuss, one soldier saluted Heidegger.

"The cannon" Heidegger looked at the approaching waves of water. He smiled and winded up his arm before throwing it out

"Fire!" The room suddenly shook as the cannon shot a burst of Mako enhance projectile towards their target. Everyone watched in the distance as the projectile burst as it hit something in the ocean, a large mushroom cloud filling the air. Heidegger slowly pulled his arm back and started standing straight. The quiet in the room slowly coming back as everyone was holding their breath.

"Did we get 'em?" Rufus asked, breaking the silence.

"Seems so..." Heidegger almost bit his tongue as the alarm came on again.

"WEAPON still approaching!" One Mp said at a computer. "Speed, fifty knots!"

"It's coming right for us!" Another yelled in panic.

"It can't be, we hit it dead on!" Heidegger clenched his fist. Rufus turned, his panic not present.

"How about the cannon?"

"It will take time to reload." Heidegger replied nervously. It would be too long at the pace the WEAPON was setting though.

"Then use regular fire power in the meantime!" Rufus raised his voice. Heidegger straightened up and yelled at the personnel.

"Yes sir! Open all artillery doors! Target: WEAPON! Don't let it land!" All of them men in the room started barking orders. Rufus saw the hail of gunfire now attacking the exposed fin. Many of the shots would hit the creature but it was undeterred...even looked like it was...

"Speed, seventy knots!" One MP yelled. Rufus instinctively backed away from the window.

"WEAPON closing in!"

"It's attacking!"

Rufus ignored the chaos in the room and kept starring outside. The large monster finally reached the harbor and almost crashed into it. Causing a large quake that knocked him off balance and onto the floor.

* * *

><p>Tifa had been scared for the past half hour. The room would shake at odd times and now the largest one by far had rocked her in her seat. But she also noticed the sudden hissing noise in the room. Looking up she saw the light white spray start to fill the room.<p>

"Gas! Barret help!" She yelled, scared.

"Hold your breath! Hold it for as long as you can!" He yelled through the door.

"I can't hold it forever!" She yelled back.

Barret tried hitting the door and ramming through it but nothing was working.

"SHIT!" Barret stopped hitting the door and ran to Cait.

"The gas room is probably locked in a different room!"

"Then we gotta go with a different plan, we need to get out of this room first!" Barret growled when he looked at the giant TV in the room.

"Tifa! I'll help you, I promise!" Both men ran out of the room and into the next hallway. But when they exited the doors suddenly latched behind them. Barret turned to pull it apart but it wouldn't budge.

"No! They locked this too?"

"Fools! Now you can't save the girl! Ha ha ha!" They heard Scarlet's voice on the other side laugh. Barret yelled and hit the door with his gun arm.

"God dammit!"

"Okay, time for plan B. Head for the airport." Cait said. Barret shook his head.

"Why the airport? I ain't gunna leave Tifa behind." The cat shook its head.

"Trust me, trust me. We gotta take a chance. Follow me." Cait rushed away. As much as Barret wanted to stay he had to put his faith in Cait. As the cat led them both out into the open where MP's, seamen, and even SOLDIERS were running around in chaos he hoped that Cait's plan would let them save Tifa. Before he could go deeper on the subject he was suddenly stopped by a reporter.

"I know you're in a hurry! But, please if I could have a word..." Barret didn't have time for this.

"Shut up! I'm in a hurry!" He yelled, the girl cringed before glaring at him.

"Don't make so much noise...its ME! Yuffie!" She pulled away her bandana and goggles to reveal her face.

"The hell you doin here!" He expected a rescue, but everything seemed more like the team was moving on they fly and less planned.

"I'll explain later! Now we got to get to the airport!" She said. In the distance Barret noticed the WEAPON fully stand up from the ocean, still approaching the harbor.

"Alright, let's go." Yuffie joined as the all ran until they had gotten to where they had all first arrived in Junon. Going through they arrived at the airport. But Barret noticed no clear way out.

"You sure this is the right way? Looks like a dead end." The cat seemed to ponder where they were until he tilted his head.

"Did I make a wrong turn?" Barret almost felt his skin turn red.

"You damn cat! What the hell are we goin to do now? They'll all be coming soon!" Multiple soldiers would start to attack once the noticed their enemy's where at the airport. Barret readied his gun arm, looking down at the metal into his reflection.

"You better watch my back till the end partner."

* * *

><p><strong>ATE<strong>

Vincent would have to thank the scientist that designed his cloak. Having it morph around him made him look odd but changing the color did help him blend into the environment more. He had infiltrated the main building and was searching for Aeris. He had volunteered since he was the most adept at espionage as well as familiar with where prisoners, or Hojo's possible subjects, would be held. Cid and Red had opted to stay at the airport and attempt to get the Highwind. Though skeptical, Vincent held hope for his friends.

"...Hello?" Vincent heard a voice. He turned down a hallway; he had gone to the middle levels of the harbor base which housed criminals as his first priority. He didn't expect Aeris to be there though.

"It's me." He said. He approached a steel door and slid open an eye slot. Inside he saw the happy face of the team's flower girl.

"I knew you guys would save me... but what about Tifa?" She asked, Vincent almost chuckled. She is about to be rescued and she worries about someone else.

"She will be fine. We need to get you out." Vincent tried to pry the door open. No such luck came, and transforming would cause too much of a commotion. It was a number pad; he needed a password or some high level ID.

"I have to look for a pass code; I'll be back soon enough." Aeris nodded. Vincent promptly left and went towards where he remembered the camera room would be, if a pass code wasn't there then he could set off a release button off possibly. The alarms would go off but he would be able to snatch Aeris before anyone noticed he was there. The holding cells weren't necessarily big, just enough to hold people until transported elsewhere. Before he could reach the room though he heard a click behind him and reached for his own gun.

"Don't or I will shoot." A cold emotionless voice said. Vincent moved his hand away from his holster and turned. He saw the tired look of the current Turk leader.

Tseng had seen better days. The wounds from Sephiroth took time to heal up and the amount of blood he lost still hadn't been made up. He had to keep one of his arms in a cast and was required to stay in the medical wing of Junon's base unless under extreme circumstances. He considered a planetary WEAPON to be one such circumstance.

"Even if I can't reach my gun I doubt you will get me with a few shots." Vincent said coolly. Tseng's hand didn't waver as he kept the gun pointed at Vincent.

"I simply needed your attention. Any other interaction and I would have been shot dead." Tseng pulled his weapon away, confusing the former Turk as he started at the current leader Turk. Holstering his gun Tseng dug into his suits pocket.

"Hojo himself changed the password so no one could free her." Out of his pocket he pulled a key card and held it out stretched.

"This will override it and open the door for you." Vincent eyed the key card and Tseng, trying to gauge a reaction but not fazing the man.

"I find it hard to believe you would willingly help us." Vince answered. Tseng understood, Turks didn't do anything for charity. There was always an ulterior motive.

"Hojo has become more mad than normal. Aeris will most likely die when he experiments on her. Consider this... a debt repaid to your former ally, had it not been for him I would be dead. Giving her back to you will insure she lives longer." Tseng said. Vincent could see the logic in the man's thought process. He went up and took the card before walking away.

"However," Vincent stopped. "Since I have no more debt I will not be able to keep the others off of you. If the Turks are ordered to eliminate you all then I have no choice but to comply." Vincent only turned and nodded at the man before he quickened his pace and found Aeris's cell. He took the keycard and inserted it into the slot. The pad had a green light show up before the door opened. Aeris ran out and hugged Vincent. Feeling awkward about the situation he just kept his arms down and let her.

"We have to go soon. There's no time to waste." She nodded and both headed for the airport

* * *

><p>Tifa held her breath for the longest time. Only taking what breaths she could and only when she believed she was going to burst. The gas filled in slowly so she still had a large amount of air to take in, but she needed to find a way out of the room.<p>

She looked down. The key the guard had dropped was still in the middle of the floor. Thinking quickly she started to slide onto the floor while her hands were still bound. Thank the Planet they didn't bind her legs as well. She stretched as much as she could muster and got the key under her foot. Thinking calmly, she slid the key so it was still under her foot when she sat back up. She took the key and placed it between her feet and lifted it while lowering her head. Taking one last breath she took the key in her mouth. She carefully placed it in the lock on her right hand and almost painfully twisted her neck so she could turn it.

She heard a click and let the lock fall over as she freed her hand. She quickly took the key and unlocked her other arm and got up from the chair. She knew there was a switch to stop the gas and looked all around the room. Sure enough, she found it behind the chair and pressed it. The gas stopped and air quickly began filling the room allowing her to breath normally again. She ran up to the door and tired to push and pull it open, but to no avail it stayed just as shut as when Barret tried.

"How could I possibly get out?" She asked herself. Before she could think anymore there was the largest quake Tifa had felt yet. She fell over as she saw the roof start to melt into itself and reveal a hole to the outside. Tifa got back up to look and saw in the distance the WEAPON attacking start to charge another attack. But before she knew it, the room shook as the Sister Ray let loose an unsuspecting shot into the weapon's face, effectively blowing its entire head off.

"What's going on in there? What did you do! Open up!"

"First you lock me in here and now you want me to come out? Make up your mind!" Tifa decided her best chance was to climb out the hole and see where it took her from there. But when she got out she realized it was a little more than she could take. She was on the outside of the building, hundreds of feet in the air, and absolutely no support.

"Get her!" Not even getting the chance to resolve herself, Tifa slowly started to descend. She looked up to see multiple military personnel doing the same. She took slow breaths and slowly climbed down. Knowing rushing would be the difference between her and a long fall followed by death. Slowly she got lower and lower, ignoring the complaints and the one scream that followed her. As soon as she was low enough she jumped down and looked around. She needed to get away from them but the only way to go was forward across the cannon. Bracing herself, she ran. She didn't know where she would go next, but she needed to keep moving. But she felt as if she had little chance when she finally reached the end of the cannon.

"Our little game of hide and seek ends here." She turned to see Scarlet walk up, somehow closer than the guards who were running to catch up.

"The execution may have been unsuccessful, but your death from falling off of here and crashing into the water below should be pretty exciting." Tifa looked away from her. But she suddenly felt a sting on her cheek.

"Stuck up till the end." For Tifa, that was the straw that broke the chocobo's back.

"Quit slapping me!" She slapped the blond woman back and reared her hand once again. "You. Old. Wench!" She hit the woman four times before she finally fell to her knees. Multiple red marks on the left side of her face.

"Take her away!" The guards finally caught up and slowly got closer to Tifa. She backed away but she knew that she would fall or get captured. She didn't have any options left.

"Now you pay. I'll really drop you if you don't settle down." Scarlet gloated, laughing to herself.

"Run!" Tifa heard, she looked around and saw no one, only Scarlet caught in her laughter and the guards focusing on her.

"Run to the end of the cannon!" Deciding it was her only choice; Tifa turned from all three people and ran. Suddenly she started to hear mechanical propellers, engine noises, then finally saw something that made her smile.

A giant airship had appeared in front of her, and on it was Barret yelling at her to keep running. He threw out a rope and yelled at the ship to get closer. Tifa soon sprinted toward the edge and jumped for the rope. She had missed by a hair and started to fall. He eyes widening she made several more grabs for the rope until finally she caught it with both of her hands. Quickly she climbed up the rope until Barret caught her hand and pulled her up. She finally let herself rest and take a few breaths. She opened her eyes to see Barret and Cait looking at her as Yuffie was in the middle looking more past her than at her.

"You okay?" Barret asked. She rubbed her face and smiled.

"My cheek hurts a little." She shook her head. "Forget about that. What's all of this about?"

"I'll get to the details later... In any case, the Highwind is now yours." Tifa widened her eyes as both Barret and Cait walked away. Tifa was about to follow when she wondered why Yuffie didn't go with them.

"I get sick up there to easy. This is the only spot I can do what Nate said and not feel anything. I'll be up when important stuff happens." Tifa nodded as she left the other girl to stare at the horizon. Tifa was amazed as she went through the ship though. She was promptly escorted last time so she didn't get to see much, now she could marvel at everything. But first she had to get to the cockpit.

"Why didn't you tell me you could fly an airship!" She saw Barret yell at Cait, who only smiled. Barret shook his head.

"I thought Tifa was gone for sure."

"Sorry, I had to do something to trick the enemy. Now come on, everyone is waiting." Cait waved Tifa over. She wondered why when she went inside and felt happy. Almost all of her friends where there and enjoying the sight of flying through the air.

"HA, welcome to my airship, the Highwind!" Cid said, he was the most excited Tifa had ever seen. She looked around the place when he spoke up again.

"Hey, what's the matter? You should be excited right now." Red soon came up and shook his head at Cid, who promptly rubbed the back of his. She walked up to Red who seemed sad.

"Do you think we're strong enough to stop Sephiroth without Nate... or Cloud?" He asked. Tifa shook her head.

"Meteor is coming, WEAPONSs are on a rampage... at a time like this I don't know what to do. No idea at all." Tifa said.

"Tifa, get a hold of yourself, we got to think this through." Barret said. Tifa just looked down.

"...if only Cloud was here. He'd know what to do."

"Then let's go find him." Tifa looked up to see a smiling Aeris.

"What do you mean?" Vincent came up and asked.

"Cloud isn't dead." This seemed to shock everyone in the room.

"How could you know that?" Barret asked.

"I can speak to the Planet, remember? If he had died I would have heard his voice, Nathan's too. But I can't hear either of them. I know they're alive." This relieved Tifa. Cloud didn't die. He was possibly safe somewhere. Waiting for them.

"Well then, I guess we shouldn't keep him waiting." Tifa said with new found confidence.

"Yeah but where would we go?" Cid asked. Red spoke up.

"Mideel." Everyone looked at him before he continued. "Nathan told me... that when this all happened. That we head to Mideel."

"He knew this was going to happen? Like just getting captured or..." Cait asked.

"He specifically told me how Tifa and Barret would be held and how this would play out." That seemed to puzzle the entire group. Red said Nate knew what was going to happen... before it happened?

"Since his disappearance we have learned more about him than when he was with us." Vincent mused. Everyone had to agree too.

"He doesn't exist, but knows what's going to happen... like a psychic... I don't get it." Barret said.

"If he really is alive... then you can ask him and Cloud when we get to Mideel."

"You're sure Cloud is there?" Tifa asked, serious about the information. Red nodded.

"Then we head to Mideel. We're going to pick up our friends." Tifa announced. Confidence slowly building back up inside of her.


	36. Chapter 36

A/n Alright guys here is a decent chapter, more talky than fighty though. Now unfortunately things have piled on on my end being so close to my graduation and multiple other events causing problems. There is a large possibility that i won't be able to do the same weekly uploads. Two weeks is possible but I am reserving judgement on that front.

Thanks to the guys and/or girls that told me about my writing and that i am okay but there can be improvements. I appreciate everyones honesty.

* * *

><p>Ch 36<p>

(days prior)

White, absence of color, yet is a color itself, and the only one I had been able to see for what seemed like forever. In all honesty I didn't know where I was, I couldn't feel anything around me, in fact I couldn't feel much of anything since I fell. All in all while I was in... well, nothingness. I had time to think and realize I learned quite a bit about Mako and the human body.

The initial part of my fall was when I finally hit the stuff. Being as high as I was, I was lucky enough to have the forethought to try to dive. It still felt like a brick was broken over my head but I was still able to think when I was submerged. Now that I think about that, I would rather have been knocked out than survive my own hell.

Mako was apparently endothermic, meaning it absorbed heat. When I was submerged I was surprised when I found I was suddenly a few degrees colder and increasingly more so as I sank deeper into the pool. It was then that I could compare Mako to reusable toxic waste. After the first five seconds of being submersed I felt as if I was on fire.

My entire body was burning, and it wasn't just my skin. With all of my wounds the Mako was able to get deeper inside myself. I swear I could have heard my atoms screaming the entire time I was under. It was worse when I finally ran out of air and was forced to take the Mako into my lungs, it's only now I can even joke about drinking and inhaling gallons of acid essentially.

It was then I found out how SOLDIERs are able to stay in those tanks for so long. Mako, as an element, is heavily oxygenated. So my surprise when I didn't drown, but continue to experience the feelings of my skin burning, my lungs, stomach, wounds, hell all of my insides felt like they was melting.

I don't know how long I was able to take the pain, it felt like days, but realistically I think I was in for a few minutes. Time really didn't matter to me. I was either unconscious or dead, I would have assumed the latter but having been sucked into a different world, I realize hope gets me a long way around here. I do wish something would happen though. I should have seen the Lifestream or even Minerva if she existed... I think. I would have liked my questions answered by one or the other, yet I'm here, Limbo essentially.

As more time passed I felt the urge to leave grow. I would feel... flashes is the right word I guess. But not of color or sound, no it was emotion. It was horrible and it got worse as time got by. I didn't feel happiness, or sadness, or annoyance. Every flash was pure, raw, hatred. I'd suddenly feel rage beyond anything I had ever felt before, and it wouldn't stop.

It grew more and more as I stayed still, the hardest part was that I couldn't react. I couldn't cringe, hold my head, I couldn't feel a single part of my body when I felt a flash of pain. I had to just take it in; hope that time would let everything pass by.

"...Survival...ossible...Mako...to high..." I heard voices, for the first time in what seemed ages I heard something. It was drifting but I knew I was somewhere now, I wasn't dead...or was but that wasn't the point at the moment.

"Friend... poisoning... recovery?" Friend, so Cloud was here... or someone else. Yuffie was holding onto me when I feel. I could have fucked everything up and dragged her with me.

"Examine...hope...est..." The voices sounded like I was submerged under water and warped, far away even.

As more time passed the voices would get just a little more clear. But the flashes of emotion grew more intense as I tried to think of a way out of my problem. I needed to get back to the real world, I needed to help Cloud get back up on his feet and stop Sephiroth. I wanted to talk to Yuffie again, I didn't want her to cry that I was gone; I didn't want anyone to be depressed...

Slowly the white light that I had been gazing at for so long started to dim. I could see edges of what seemed like a very plain room. I saw multiple metal pans, surgical items, and monitoring equipment. The room was made out of plain wood, and it seemed a little makeshift.

The next moment I turned to the side of my bed and threw up, a rotten and horrible taste suddenly in my mouth. Looking down I felt sicker seeing the glowing green liquid I had been surrounded in for a time. I looked around more and saw my room was very small for a medical room. I groaned as I tried to lift myself up. My body felt heavier than normal, and being inactive for so long made my joints tense. With some perseverance I was able to sit at the edge of my bed and slide to the ground. I fell forward as my legs weren't strong enough to support my full weight. I examined myself to see I wasn't in my clothes anymore; instead I was stuck in a simple hospital gown. My right arm was in a sling, obviously still broken from my fall. I also had bandages wrapped around my forearms and all around my stomach.

"Damn it," I struggled to say. I really was too weak to do anything. I could barely say a word. I slowly stood balanced myself on the hard wooden floor before trying to walk. My muscles were still tense from stretching and suddenly not having the familiar weights of my weapons. Maybe I had been traveling too long. I felt naked... well more naked without any of my weapons or armor on. Looking around the room, I felt a little happiness at the sight of one of my swords. But its condition could have been better.

My Masamune was now soaked in Mako, giving off a somewhat soapy green sheen. After Sephiroth's strike it had been cut down from six feet in length to four with an almost flat and blunt tip. I guess it would be easier to wield without the extra steel. It was still sharp from what I could see. Why waste it, I could still use it and it would probably be easier for me. I still need to find my Genji gloves though.

"Oh my!" I quickly turned my head towards the room's door to see it open and a raven haired nurse staring at me like I was a ghost. She didn't look like a threat but I kept up my guard... wait why would I do that? There's no point, she's just a nurse. Slowly I eased myself and felt awkward at the lack of conversation going on.

However my legs decided to collapse from being under my weight for too long and I fell to the ground, letting out a grunt in the process. Now I feel like an idiot, I tense up when people weaker than me come in and can't even stand up afterwards.

"Little help here," I mumbled, instead she ran out the room, yelling for a doctor to come in. Soon enough she came back in with a man who had thin gray hair as well as a small gray mustache. His eyes widened behind his glasses upon seeing me out of bed.

"Well you weren't exaggerating." He said, the nurse whispering back to him before he nodded and pulled something out of his pocket.

A needle with a clear liquid inside of the vial.

Fuck. That. Shit.

Despite my weak muscles I got up and picked up my sword with my good arm and pointed it at the two.

"Calm down, it's just a mild sedative." He reassured. I knew for a fact whenever a doctor holds a syringe at you saying it's only just a sedative you don't trust the guy.

"Bullshit," I spit out, which only seemed to make the doctor's eyes widen more.

"Motor skills are still intact, and speech is normal, fascinating." I stared him down as he put the syringe away and instead took a medical board near my bed and started writing things down.

"Doctor we should..." Before she finished he held up his hand.

"Nurse, he isn't hostile, he is just confused. We should let him relax before we do anything. He doesn't seem tired, just his body hasn't exerted any energy for a while. Please get him something to eat." He assured. The nurse nodded before leaving the room and the old doctor looked at me with a smile. It wasn't off putting; in fact he looked like an okay guy.

"You have caused quite a bit of trouble here. You're lucky you didn't break anything or I would have to charge you more." He said. I slowly lowered my sword. He didn't seem bad; I mean not all doctors are like Hojo.

"Have you seen my friend?" I asked, speech getting easier.

"The blond haired SOLDIER? He is in the next room over."

"I want to see him." I said, the doctor looked at me as if I was crazy before he shook his head.

"If you can hobble there then be my guest, but you must be back in your bed afterwards. I have many questions for you." I nodded. I kept my sword on me in case anything went wrong. Standing I got up and limped out the door. I was the last room out of what appeared to be five so Cloud was the second to last. I opened his room and saw Cloud.

It was both disheartening and joyful to see him. He had lived like he was supposed to. But to see his condition personally really showed how bad off he was. He was stuck in his wheel chair, head bobbing up and down as he groaned. He eyes were unfocused and had a very intense glow from the Mako poisoning. Looking at him made me realize I was lucky enough to not be in his state, but how wasn't I?

"I believe you've seen enough. Come back and eat while I fill out a few things." The doctor behind me said. Soon enough I was back on my bead eating. I was a little peeved there weren't any real solid foods. Some water, applesauce, and cut bananas were on my tray. But I realized how hungry I was and gave in while the doctor sat in front of me with his clip board.

"Now I am just going to ask you a few questions to clarify a few things. Basic information and the like." I nodded. He looked down at his paper.

"What is your name?"

"Nathan River." Already his pencil stopped and he sighed and shook his head.

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"How long have you been with Shinra." That question threw me for a loop.

"I've never worked for Shinra." That made him stop and look up.

"Never?" He asked, clarifying. I shook my head.

"You must have, you're a part of SOLDIER like your friend aren't you?" Again another question that didn't make sense to me.

"I'm no SOLDIER," I said. The doctor looked completely befuddled until he made multiple notes.

"I think you should look at yourself." He got up and went over to one of his equipment bins before pulling out a mirror. I looked completely normal. My hair was a little bit spiked and my skin was a lighter shade. Although I had bandages wrapped around me forehead, I looked fine. It wasn't until I looked into my own eyes that I actually gasped.

First off I didn't have my glasses on, I finally realized that I had perfect vision without them. My normal brown eyes were now completely different. They had the glow that only Mako enhancements could accomplish. I frowned though upon closer inspection. The glow made it so the brown around my eyes were near nonexistent, mixing with my black pupils and making my eyes look black, and hollow. They reminded me too much of my other self's eyes.

"You are sure you've never been in Shinra? Or have had any memory problems?" I could have lied, but the back lash would be total shit when everyone else got to Mideel. I really don't know how much longer I could hold up to lying about where I was from. They would find out I was never born here and ask questions... maybe it's time to come clean. If I wait till the end then no one would have time to react to it until the final battle is done with. Even then I wouldn't know if I would still be stuck here or go home.

"No, I am sure," I answered. I had maybe a few days time before anyone else shows up. I can clear my mind before anything happens.

"Truly unbelievable. No prior exposure and yet you take to Mako like a fish in water."

"Yes, because taking an acid bath and drinking while breathing the crap is what fish feel everyday doctor."

"Your sense of humor is intact, or has it always been so dry?" I let a smile grace my lips as the doctor got up, continuing his notes before turning back.

"If it is alright with you Mr. River. I would like to have a chance to study you." He asked earnestly. I knew the doctor was a good guy; but I really didn't trust examinations.

"You may be nervous, but I won't dissect you. In fact I just need two seconds to take some of your blood and I can do the rest by myself. I am willing to wave your medical fees for this. As well as give you all of your items." That deal was a little too good to pass up. I needed my armor and Fusion along with all the rings and extras from my adventure.

"Fine, just make it quick." I held out my arm when the doctor nodded and got his syringe. I winced a little when he pierced my skin and started drawing blood but it soon left. However the odd sight of my now slightly light red blood with a faint green glow made me feel uncomfortable.

"You should rest now. It's almost night and it will be some time before I can properly tell you what I have discovered. If you need anything then use the buzzer next to your bed to call the nurse." I nodded and laid down fully into my bed. I soon found I was extremely tired and it didn't take long for me to fall asleep.

* * *

><p>"I need more tests done on magic capacity as well as reactions to time materia, now!" An attendant mumbled an acknowledgment before he was shooed off by Hojo, who was examining a sample already in front of him. He had finally arrived back at Midgar after the imprisonment of the AVALANCHE members that didn't escape as well as the Ancient. He couldn't take her with him to Midgar, Rufus had ordered her to be imprisoned in Junon until the rest of AVALANCHE was found. Hojo knew it was a sound plan, make the Ancient a hostage and they wouldn't have to worry about them anymore.<p>

But he wasn't fully disappointed. The data he had received from the anomaly's blood was actually staggering to him. Nothing had surprised him ever so much as when he discovered Jenova. Yet he now had something that made him almost salivate.

The base of the DNA was human. A small disappointment since Hojo hoped he was of a similar, if not actual member of what Jenova was. It reacted the same to near everything normally. It would die off from poisons, change in temperature, all standard things that made a human weak in Hojo's eyes. But the similarities ended when he had ordered for reactions to materia and Mako exposure.

Somehow the blood was resistant to magic; in fact it would fight off poisons caused by magic more so than by natural planet born plants. A detail he would have to investigate further since the multitude of tests he had made later stretched his time thin. But even then it also enhanced the magic that was cast through it. The only thing that had the same properties was his SOLDIER creation process.

"Sir... the t-test results are..."

"Good! Hand it here!" He snatched the papers away from the attendant and read them over. He sneered when the results weren't what he wanted. The blood reacted the same to time altering materia. Perhaps if he had the body he would test out how it reacted to perceptions of time. But that was scrap when the boy had gotten himself killed and dropped a few hundred feet.

Tragic, he would never have a decent supply of samples.

"Mako contact?" He asked, he was handed more papers before the assistant explained.

"The results were... interesting sir. The blood doesn't have any mana from the lifestream, but it has a very strong connection when magic is channeled. Combined with Mako it actually increases magic potential exponentially. But there is a control aspect that needs to be..."

"I have heard enough. Run more tests. We only have so much before we need to be sparing. Run compatibility with other cells." The potential behind this discovery was too much for Hojo. A natural enhancer for magic only existed in Mako, yet this human had such an enhancer inside his body naturally. He needed to make sure that the samples he had could last.

Perhaps a few Jenova cells will make them longer lasting.

* * *

><p>"Old man I won't ask you again. I want all your information."<p>

"I told you that's not possible."

My eyes slowly opened to the noise of two men yelling. One I could tell was the doctor while the other I had never heard before. But it was authoritative, angry, and didn't sound like someone to reason with. With renewed strength I got out of my bed and crept toward my door, making sure I didn't make a sound. I slowly opened it to find the doctor across the hall, sitting at a desk.

In front of him were three Shinra military personnel. However the metal shoulder pads as well as the knight like helmet on their heads and similar style suits to Cloud made me realize they were SOLDIERs. Two had a distinct crimson color to their uniform while the other had a light blue suit. Two seconds and one third class. Of all the shit the world could throw at me, it decided to give me this.

"Listen here doctor; we have been patrolling this village and island for a whole week now. I am getting tired of coming back here and you not helping my men." One of the seconds said.

"I have told you from the start I don't have information on who you're looking for." The doctor said, his glare aimed at the obvious leader of the group.

"I don't think you've been honest to us doc. I should call for more men and then you may talk when we have full jurisdiction here." The leader leaned onto the table.

"I have shown you all of my records. You all checked them yourself." The doctor persisted.

"I am not going back to HQ empty handed." The SOLDIER then took the doctor up by his collar and lifted him up in the air.

"Now, I want more than what you gave me. What do you have on a man named Nathan River?" My eyes widened at that. Apparently Rufus didn't send out orders to stop hunting for me and Cloud. He only mentioned me though... I did say this was my home town so he must have thought he would find something on me.

"I told you I have never met the man." The doctor persisted. I was surprised to hear the man deny I was here. He really was more admirable than I thought.

"Sir, this isn't good for Shinra's image. Just put him down. He's a civilian." The other second class almost pleaded.

"Just let the boss do what he needs. It gets the job done." The third class commented, one of his cohorts most likely.

"Not like this." The leader frowned before letting the doctor down with a thud and looking at the other second.

"Are you undermining my authority? Let me remind you you're only chief warrant two and have already been demoted once before. Another call from me and you'll be back to sergeant, as well as a third again. Do you want that?" The only decent person among the three grumbled before he stood straight.

"No sir." The leader nodded before he looked back at the doctor.

"Let's make another patrol men. We'll come back when you're more willing to talk." He waved his hand and the three of them left the room. The doctor let out a sigh before he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead.

"You can come out now. They won't be back for a few days." I opened the door fully. Walking out I looked to see part of the village through several windows.

"They've been doing this for a week now although I have been lying to them," He said, wiping his glasses as well.

"Why did you help me?" I asked. He just got out of his chair and started looking through some files behind him.

"I feel no love for Shinra. I have heard rumors of its treatment towards scientific subjects, both human and beast. As well as SOLDIER becoming nothing more than shock troopers since some of their highest officers were killed." He said. It was understandable, I could tell the doctor valued his trade, and someone perverting it made dedicated people like him be undermined for not taking the drastic measures as often just for minimal results.

"But that is enough about that. In fact I am almost delighted that you woke up this early." From the files he had taken he pulled out one marked with a red tag and laid it out on his desk. I sat down across from him and he opened it up.

"I will cut right to the chase, you are a normal person. Yet you do not have the same magic based properties as everyone else on Gaia." I raised an eyebrow.

"Not the same?" I asked, he nodded.

"Tell me, do you believe in the Lifestream?"

"Of course... I didn't think a doctor would though." I remember Hojo in the game didn't like the term magic when Sephiroth described the power of materia. It seemed like a scientific concept was needed.

"It helps to know a little about that as well as materia theory when it came to your case. I was never a stiff about magic having to be explained by science. I became a doctor to heal people, not to dispute how a cure materia shouldn't be able to mend bones on a scientific level. Now back on topic." He took a few pages out of the folder, both with wavy lines and notes under them.

"The first page is a regular person's magic compatibility, measured by a frequency. Some people are higher than others and even animals can have the ability to cast magic. It's never explained how people can interact with magic, but few such as myself think the Lifestream gives these properties to people. Now..." He placed another sheet in front of me. It had more waves than the other one.

"This is a SOLDIER low second or mid third's compatibility I took some years ago. The addition of Mako increases magic power as well as strength, intelligence, stamina, the works." He put a third sheet in front of me.

"This is yours." Looking at it, the waves seemed like a compressed version of the SOLDIER sheet.

"Unfortunately I can't make a graph for before you took a Mako bath, but I can make a hypothesis. You were somehow born differently than everyone else on Gaia. Your soul was an untapped source of potent magic potential that was waiting for a catalyst to set it free. Judging from your items you used materia quite a bit. So your more potent mana allows you to use magic with more devastating results." Wow... that's actually kind of cool. But shit that means that everyone else on earth is a magical juggernaut just waiting to blow up.

"What does this have to do with my Mako?" I get that I use magic on a stronger level than normal people, and now apparently on par with a cheap SOLDIER. But that doesn't explain how I'm alive and not catatonic. In fact, by all means I should be dead.

"The process to make a SOLDIER starts by checking a person's magic compatibility. A higher compatibility means that a person has a higher possibility of Mako mixing into their body. The extra enhancements Professor Hojo makes it technically safer since it enhances the subject's body as well. Your absorption was a combination of your above average physique, high magic abilities, and dumb luck, although you should be catatonic. The Lifestream tries to force itself into the person's brain, causing Mako poisoning."

"So how did I live?"

"Perhaps those with strong will have the ability to push out the Lifestream's force into the brain." He thought. I decided to think back to everyone else. Sephiroth survived with Jenova's protection of his mind. Tifa didn't get poisoned helping Cloud because of Aeris... oh god.

I almost wanted to kill myself right there. A small detail, one thing I missed would now have the possibility of causing the greatest shitstorm for me yet. I took a breath, I would have to find a way to help Tifa out on that front soon, otherwise everything would fall apart. So everyone that wasn't poisoned had an outside influence that kept the Lifestream out of a person's mind. So mine would be...

I frowned. The flashes of hate started to make sense. My other self couldn't take over a body and be paralyzed later because of the Lifestream pouring itself into my brain. I wasn't taken over because he was using all of his... or rather, my mental capacity to keep everything out. It's actually a little funny. To make sure he had a chance at his destructive ambition, he had to do something good to make it possible.

"Now there are drawbacks to how you were born. You don't have the necessary control that everyone else has to properly use pure magic techniques," he explained, putting the folder away.

"Pure magic techniques?"

"The slang term the younger generation uses is limit breaks. You can't use limit breaks."

Wait...what the hell have I been doing then? My Falcon Punches, Chidori, Air Slash, and Leech are all that stuff.

"But I do use them." I argued.

"Did you use the aid of materia when you used these techniques, or channeled your magic through magic conductive metal such as mythril?" Well all of those used some kind of materia... and my broken sword is mythril... and I know Fusion was a magical sword. Well damn, I can't do that cool stuff without using materia. That sucks actually.

"Well shit." I voiced it out loud. The doctor laughed.

"Now don't be down. With the Mako in your system you are enhanced, just not like a SOLDIER. From what I have been able to monitor since you and your friend got here you have only one and a half times strength you did than the two and one half that come from the extra in the SOLDIER creation procedure. Your eyesight is twenty-twenty, though you may have had that before. Stamina is times two instead of three as well as reaction time, thought process, speed, and other miscellaneous parts of your body." Huh, so I'm the ODST to Cloud's Spartan. Without all the negative effects of having Jenova in my system.

"But why can't I use limit breaks?" I was still bummed about that small fact.

"It's the fact your magic is much too powerful for you to channel properly... Ah! Think of it as a garden hose." Again I was confused.

"A normal person has a garden hose with a nozzle, able to use water, or magic, when they so choose. A SOLDIER has a pipe with a multifunctional nozzle. With regular release, spray, and other functions that represent the versatility they control their magic." Now I started to get it.

"So what does that make me?" I asked.

"You are a fire hose. You can control the flow of magic and it comes out in more quantity than a SOLDIER. But to control it by yourself is impossible." Damn, I need to abuse my magic more. I could use my swords as a secondary for close range. I could basically be a red mage, that's awesome!

"Now we're done with that, you have indeed brightened up my day Mr. River. I may even write about your condition. You may not be the first, or you're one of a kind. Any who I have your possessions here." He pointed behind his desk and I found most of my items, I even put on my gauntlets just to get familiar with them again. However there were a few things missing.

"I had another sword and multiple rings and accessories." If he lost my shit...

"Your rings are being cleaned by the nurse. I never found a sword though." I groaned, there is no way I lost Fusion to the sea.

"Where did you find me and my friend? I need to get that sword its... special." The doctor frowned before sighing.

"I didn't find you with your friend." Wait... I didn't drift to shore like Cloud? Where the hell did I come from then?

"I had picked your friend up a day before I found you. There are multiple Mako fountains around these islands. One is in fact on the other side of the island. I went there to get Mako to test how high your friend's poisoning was to normal levels. I found you there."

"I was from a different fountain?" I asked, he nodded.

"The currents in the Lifestream are not constant Mr. River. Unless you and your friend fell in the same location then even deviating a few meters can change where a person ends up." Wow that's lucky; I could have been spat out near Junon or some other location.

"How far is this other fountain?" The doctor looked at me like I was crazy.

"You're not honestly going out for a sword?"

"Yes, yes I am." Fusion has helped me immensely and it will help me more with my extra magic.

"You have an arm still in your sling. You're not even in decent condition to fight any monsters if you come across them."

"Well I have amazing magic and a backup sword. I have been traveling for the past month and a half so I know how to deal with monsters." The doctor leveled a glare at me which I returned. He looked away and took a breath before he went over to another drawer and took out a map.

"The fountain is a good half a day's travel from here. It's technically Shinra's jurisdiction so I recommend hurrying through. Take your equipment; problem is I don't have a change of clothes for you."

"I'll just take scrubs if you have any, I can get decent clothes some other time." I said. Hell I was the most under armored male on the team, well not considering Nanaki. I could do this.

"Lucky for you I have some. Get your items; I can't give you any food or medical supplies besides a potion or two. So make your way back quickly." He went to a closet and handed me the scrubs. While I dressed he placed all of my extra materia and accessories in my cleaned backpack.

"Take care; if you get caught I will be in as much trouble as you. So think about that while getting your weapon." I smiled, in all my time of visiting doctor's, this guy had to be the most humorous.

"Later doc." With my sword on my back and Genji gloves along with the familiar weight of my items, I left. Looking around I saw all of the other wooden houses that made up the village. They weren't shacks but the buildings weren't without a few holes in them either. Following the map I went north east from Mideel, making sure to avoid anyone I didn't want to be seen by. Over time I traveled through the tropical-like forest. It wasn't so bad, monsters were far and few between and I had a mastered lightning and fire materia.

It did feel good to be moving about again. My body didn't really protest. I guess after traveling for so long, staying still just isn't as good as it was for me before. I let my mind wander while I traveled, thinking back to my decision to tell everyone about myself. I knew I couldn't hide the fact forever, and Nanaki had already found out. Waiting only made it so it would hinder everyone at inopportune moments. Plus it would help in finding all of the secret items without having to lead everyone by the nose. Hell, how could he get anyone to Lucrecia's cave to help Vince without looking suspicious?

The sun was in the middle of the sky now; I could only assume it was around noon without a working watch or PHS to tell the time. When I looked around I noticed the trees were starting to thin out as I was getting closer to my destination. The ground had an odd sheen to it as I got closer to it too.

"Where the hell am I going?" I muttered out loud, getting my sword ready in case I was ambushed in the now changing layout. The ground was now starting to flourish with a moss-like grass and the few trees around were taller than normal. I noticed a faint glow in the distance. Getting closer I got up to a cliff.

All around the area I saw the brilliant glow of green from the Mako pools around the area. The few plants that were alive were thriving on the life energy, the whole place looked familiar. It wasn't formed naturally; the jaggedness of the rocks had shown.

"So... this is what's left of Banora."

I never thought of coming to the town. I mean, I assumed it was near the island of Mideel, but on the same one as the village. It makes me wonder why the doctor didn't mention the destroyed town. Perhaps Mideel was only recently made. I'm not sure really.

"For a place blown to hell it does look good." At least I have the knowledge no one was killed with the explosion. Most the people were taken out, and I believe it was Angeal's mother that was left behind, but she was already dead.

I shook my head; there was no point to dwell on what happened to this place. If I didn't hurry I would get caught by someone. Carefully I traversed down the cliff and landed on the gravel next to a pool of Mako, I felt a small rush of heat pass by me. I guess I was more sensitive to the junk now. I continued looking for Fusion. There were multiple pools so I would have to find one with the sword. Hopefully it was shot out a geyser or something.

"Freeze!" Before I could reach for my sword, three men jumped down from the cliffs around me. All had broad swords out.

"Well looks like we finally found our guy." I slowly inched my hand but the men all crouched.

"One false move and you're chunks, hands where we can see them." I raised my hand in the air. The Planet must love ruining my life. When is the good karma gunna roll in? I am about to cash in on month's worth of bullshit.

"So we finally got our target, looks like that old man was holding out on us. Can't trust civilians anymore," The leader said, a very smug look on his face.

"So what now boss?" The third asked.

"We take him in, and the doctor for withholding information."

"How the fuck did you guys find me so fast?" Seriously I was there for five minutes and they catch my ass.

"We happened to find this here." The third pulled out Fusion from his back. "Must say quality sword, shame it was in your hands. I think it'll be better with me.

"What was he guilty of?" The other second asked.

"He knows just a little too much about Shinra's workings. Add that he is part of a major terrorist organization, then Shinra wants him taken out."

"What about Hojo? He wanted the guy." Wait, Hojo is on my case. Fuck, I forgot he had Jenova cells. He must want to know how I knew so much about Sephiroth. The parasite must have given him some of the information.

"He even ordered for him to be captured alive, for experimentation." My eyes widened.

"Wait, experimentation? Why?" The other second asked.

"I don't know, but now I might have an idea. His eyes look like a SOLDIER's, yet he isn't on our roster."

"I haven't done anything to Shinra besides keep people alive. I was the guy that healed a Turk, I was the guy that made sure most of Sector Seven is still alive, and I am going to be one of the guys that's going to save the world from the giant hunk of red mass in the middle of the sky." I argued. The leader seemed to ignore me.

"Like we care, in fact two of your friends are scheduled for an execution in the next few days. When we're done with you can join 'em." I noticed the third creep up closer out the corner of my eye.

"Now why don't you tell us what secrets you stole, must have been something juicy if both the President and Hojo want you."

"Sir, I don't think we should know." The leader glared at the other second when the third got close enough.

"I don't have any secrets, and fuck you anyway!" I charged a small bolt spell and shot it at the approaching third. The spell had its intended effect and surprised him while I shoved into him. My arm hurt from the sudden contact. Taking advantage of my surprise attack, I took Fusion from the third. Before I could attack I had to roll away from a broad sword coming down at me.

"Well he's fast, the eyes aren't for show." The leader lifted up his sword.

"Boss, you almost killed me!" The third yelled.

"You moved," I smiled.

"I thought I was gunna have trouble with you guys. But I can kick the crap out of a bunch of assholes any day!" My confidence was returning, SOLDIERs weren't as good as people thought anymore. I had enhancements now; I could muscle my way through this if I wanted.

"You know, I think the President won't care about us handing you in already dead. Hojo just wants you for experiments."

"That's against protocol!" The other second said.

"Like I care, I want payback." The Third drew his sword and started running. Even with the increased reaction time I was just barely able to block his attack with my one arm. I channeled a lighting spell through Fusion. The third, having no lightning immune armor, felt the full surge of the spell before he faltered. I made a slash with a wide arc, cutting the SOLDIER on his arm before he jumped back.

"Lucky little…" The cut was decent enough, but knowing their healing factor I needed to keep the damage up.

"A magic junkie. Try this, Tri-fire!" My eyes widened before I dodged the three different fireballs aimed at me. I forgot SOLDIERs had manufactured materia.

"Delta formation!" I heard the order and found the SOLDIERs in the exact same position as before.

"Dark fire!"

"Tri-fire!"

"Drain!" All three cast a different magic attack. I ducked under the more dangerous dark fire but was hit by two of the Tri-fire balls and the drain spell. The leader saw an opening and sprinted to grab onto my broken arm.

"Caught him." I almost bit my tongue trying not to scream. I felt weak, too weak, but I needed to think of something to get me out.

"Finally, let's kill the little shit." The third lifted his arm only to have it slapped away by the other second.

"We are supposed to catch him! This is not how a SOLDIER acts!" He yelled.

"Fuck you. He cut my arm."

"Both of you shut up. When we turn him in we'll all get promotions, I'm sure." He had the same smirk when he started to twist it, making me grunt in pain.

"What are you doing?" The other second asked.

"I'm teaching him a lesson, maybe making sure his arm is permanently broken so he will know not to mess with Shinra again."

"No, we are taking him in. I am done with this abuse. You hassled the villagers to no end, threatened a civilian, and now torturing a person after being captured. This isn't honor; this isn't how a SOLDIER should act.

"Oh, you want us to act like your friend that disappeared four years ago? He was a weakling, so what if he became a First. He died with his stupid honor. We're SOLDIER, we don't need that." the Third said. I started laughing when he turned to me and my arm started getting twisted harder.

"Got something to say?" The leader asked sarcastically. The increase pressure on my arm was killing me.

"There is no honor for Shinra anymore. I know that personally. There are no more hero's either, all of them were killed or defected. SOLDIER is complete shit." I said. Dying never stopped me from running my mouth, increased injury wasn't going to.

"I guess you want your arm broken." He twisted even harder.

"That's enough!" the other second yelled before the Third held him back.

"You know boss, I consider that insubordination and treason. He's trying to stop you from apprehending a target." The Second looked shocked at the accusation.

"...Too bad Warrant, I never liked you anyway. I got tired of your SOLDIER honor a long time ago."

"You can't be serious!" He had his broadsword at the ready. The other two were distracted. I scrambled to remember what materia I had in my right hand.

"Looks like everything gets better. Caught a high profile target and even stopped a SOLDIER from turning against his team." I closed my eyes, concentrating.

"This is what Shinra has come to... I needed a reason to quit. After this I'm going to go find my friend. I'm done with Shinra!" I felt a drain in my magic reserves. The three SOLDIERs froze, noticing something.

"What the hell did you do?" The leader yelled, I smiled.

"Boss look out!" Before he could the man was hit and knocked over by a green blur. My arm now free, I picked my sword back up. I looked at the devil-like summoning. Ifrit looked back at me before he flew forward at the SOLDIERs, a fiery path being left behind as he charged into the Third class. The man screamed as he was smashed into multiple trees as Ifrit disappeared. The beautiful Mako grass now scorched.

"A summoning materia?" The other Second asked. The leader turned back to me, still on the ground.

"Both of you are done." He went for the other Second first, knocking him back and making him release his sword. The other tried to use his materia but the leader second was the better of the two, I knew I had an opening but I had second thoughts. One of the SOLDIERs seemed decent, he was following orders and now he was about to get shafted for having morals.

Hoping my decision wouldn't lead to my death, I thought of how to hit the SOLDIER leader and have enough time to make a kill shot. I had magic, I can duel cast but channeling two high level spells at the same time would mess me up with my possibly re-broken arm... but if I could dual cast then...

"It's over for you." The SOLDIER leader said before he knocked the other down, his broadsword up as he was ready to kill the other. I focused on two materia in my left hand. I made a small gravity ball and channeled lighting through my gauntlets; the spells didn't blow up in my face so I thought I was good.

"Hey!" He spared me a glance. "Taste my lightning fucker. Electric mayhem!" I let the gravity orb burst when I pointed towards the man. The combined spell threw both men back as the lightning surged. The attack lacked precision so it hit both men. I got up and ran towards the now downed leader and stabbed Fusion into him. I felt his hand shoot up and grip my broken arm but I kept the blade in him. After a minute I felt the man's hand fall limp.

I took Fusion out slowly and made sure to clean the blood on the grass. Looking back I saw the other Second in better condition than what the leader was, but he was slumped on a tree next to a pool of Mako. I had walked closer when he had tugged on his broadsword and lofted it up.

"Stay back, i can still fight. You can't have much in you." He was partially true. I was winded from the exertion. Looking at him though he would take a while to heal. Remembering what the potions the doctor gave me I opened my pack and took one potions and started drinking it as well as rubbing some along my fresh scratches and burns. When i was finished i was about to open the second one when I saw the SOLDIER's helmet turned in my direction now instead of looking down. I looked at the potion and him when I decided to go against my better judgement.

"Here." I tossed it to the man who surprisingly caught it with ease. He seemed stunned that I gave it to him though.

"T-Thanks." He was breathing heavily. My attack must have messed him up more than I thought.

"Why would you give me this? I was going to capture you." True...i guess I'm just a bleeding heart.

"You know a lot of people have tried to capture me. The Turks have and I don't blame them. The President is just doing his job, even if I don't agree that fear controls people. I realized that in this world some of my enemy's are inevitably going to be allies in the days to come. I should live for the future, like one without Meteor.

"How could you stop Meteor?" he asked.

"Not just me. I have friends who are going to need my help. AVALANCHE is about saving the Planet. The next issue we're going to solve is Sephiroth and Meteor." I sat down on a tree opposite of the Second class and opened my potion, drinking the concoction and rubbing the stuff on my burns.

"But what are you going to do?" I asked. I kept my sword by me just in case. I may trust the Turks in two years, but I still have to keep my guard up.

"Honestly, I don't know. For the last couple of months I've wanted to find a way to quit Shinra. I really wanted to help a friend that I believed was alive for so long. But now..." He trailed off, I deliberated. The guy didn't like Shinra, he seemed like a decent man. Hell, he valued friendship so much he wants to help.

"How about you work for AVALANCHE?" He looked at me funny, at least I think. Hard to tell with that helmet on his head.

"What? But I'm the guy you're all fighting."

"We have two people who are ex-Shinra now. One who was a pilot for them, two who have been imprisoned by them, and an executive on our side. What's one more, you don't have to travel with us, you could do other stuff. Like information. You'd be our man on the inside, get to know what's going on and relay it to us." That was actually a good idea. We had Reeve but he was a little unreliable without a secondary source.

"I could do that, I know everything in Shinra, I know all of the rumors, new additions, escaped experiments. I could do that... but I would be stuck in Shinra." He looked down.

"Look you don't have to; you can get up right now and start a Chocobo ranching business for all I care. All I'm saying is that if you team up with us, you can make a difference." From the lack of motion I believed he was thinking about what to do. It wasn't until a minute later I got my answer.

"You know, you remind me of my friend. He could get anyone to do anything. He had that charisma about him. You got a little bit of that in you... I'll help you." I let myself smiled before getting up; I went over and offered him a hand.

"I can't really say welcome to AVALANCHE, but when the gang gets to the island I can put in a word for you." He smiled and took my hand, lifting himself up.

"I guess it's the best I can get. But you heard the other guy. Two of them are going to be executed." I waved him off as I started walking away.

"I can guarantee they will escape and be here within the week. I have faith in my friends." I heard footsteps as the man started following me.

"So this is a fresh start between us?" He asked. I nodded.

"Yup, names Nathan, nice to meet you dude." He laughed to himself.

"Same here, I'm Kunsel. I hope to get to know you and your team better."


	37. Chapter 37

A/N three weeks audience. My god it has been a long time, but i finally have everything sorted through and should be able to upload normally for a while before i have to go through college processes. I feel i passed all of my examines and i feel a little better about this chapter and next weeks as well.

I would like to thank all my subscribers that have waited patiently or not for this, and i hope i don't disappoint.

since today is to good a day to sully with heavy handed words, here is ch 37 of the Stranger from the sky.

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><p>Ch 37<p>

The feeling of the air rushing past her was exhilarating. She guessed Cid must have the same feeling all the time on his ship. It was hard to enjoy it though with the thought of throwing up running through her head every couple of minutes. She had done the things Nate had taught her to make sure she wasn't sick, but it just didn't work as well as it used to, making it very hard to admire the Highwind. The airship was amazing; it was the most technological thing she had run across yet. She cursed at her motion sickness, and had decided to look around the rest of the ship to keep her distracted.

The ship was big, it had enough room to give the whole team individual rooms, it had its own chocobo stable, operation room, and the bridge even had a huge window for everyone to see what was happening.

When she had gone up to the bridge she was brought up to speed having spent her time on the deck and almost cried in front of everyone after hearing about the possibility of Nathan still being alive. However she held that in and just showed how happy she was. She felt better at the knowledge, seeing him fall just so she wouldn't die with him was the kindest thing anyone had done for her. In fact, he was the only one on the team that really made her feel special. Even when she would snatch his materia he would be nice and not yell at her. He even borrowed the whole team's materia just to help her fight her father over something that had nothing to do with stopping Shinra. He was really the only person to have treated her like that, and knowing he wasn't gone; she couldn't describe how happy she was.

But she was confused at how they knew where to find him. Apparently everyone else was when they said that Nate told Nanaki to tell them where Cloud would end up, and they assumed that's where Nate would be.

Yuffie slowly remembered his words. Him yelling at her to talk to Nanaki, how he would know what to do. Now he tells everyone where Cloud is and with Aeris's word, Nathan as well? Yuffie was happy; she couldn't help but question how that he would know.

"How would Nathan know where Cloud would end up?" She asked out loud. Everyone looked at her before thinking hard themselves.

"Yeah, how would he know?" Tifa asked. She looked at Nanaki who was lying down, keeping an eye on everyone.

"It's very hard to explain. But he did say there would come a point he would have to and I would help," He said.

"Explain what?" Vincent asked, uncharacteristically curious.

"I believe he would rather explain for himself... just don't dismiss him if what he says makes you angry." Nanaki closed his eye.

"What would he say to do that?" Cait asked, the group shook their heads.

"I really don't care, we're going to be at the island shortly and we get to see two familiar faces. Normal people would kill for that chance. Let's count ourselves lucky that we can." Cid said.

"Normal people?" Barret asked.

"Yeah, I sure as hell know we aren't normal. Look at us, this has to be one of the most rag tag combinations ever imagined, hell we even have a talking animal that's smarter than the rest of us. Point is I like that kid, and I guess Cloud's an okay guy. We can ask what's going on when we land soon."

"We're there?" Tifa asked. Cid nodded.

"The village isn't too far a walk. I just need to find some grassland. I don't want my baby ruined because of a bunch of trees."

"Okay guys, we get off this hunk of junk soon, get ready."

"What are you calling a hunk a junk you bullets for fingers?" Cid yelled at Barret. The rest of the group had dispersed to get their equipment. It felt just a little weird to Yuffie. She had been carrying everything on her for the past few years. She didn't get out of the habit when they had permanent rooms; she still had all of her things with her.

"Do you think they're really here?" She asked Cid, deciding to stay while everyone else was gone.

"Absolutely, I got a gut feeling and Red pretty much confirmed it."

"But how would he? Why would Nate know how this went?" She asked.

"Yuffie let me tell you something. When I joined you all, why do you think I did it?" He asked. Yuffie had thought for a minute. Everyone had a reason to be on the team. Vincent and Cloud for revenge, Aeris to find out more with her race, Tifa and Barret wanted to keep the planet safe, Red wanted to see the world, Nate had told her he wanted to save somebody, and Cait wanted to be forgiven. She herself joined just to steal everyone's things right under their noses, but now she genuinely wanted to save the world. Cid really didn't have a reason. Revenge maybe since Shinra took his ships.

"Because Shinra took away all of your planes?" She asked. He just shrugged.

"That's a small part of it. I'm still pissed about that too. I made the Highwind and Tiny Bronco because I loved the rush of flying. That feeling of being weightless or being in the sky and seeing all of the other people on the ground. Point is I am an adventurous man. For years now I have sat on my ass waiting for Shinra to help my dream. When they came to take the Tiny Bronco I realized they were never going to help me." He took a long puff from his cigarette before throwing it away.

"Then you guys show up. Talking about killing a man literally made of legends, and taking down the single most powerful company in the entire world. I meant what I said; all of you are fucking insane thinking you have a chance at this. But I joined anyway because this sounded like the adventure I needed, the one I had been denied. Now I am flying my airship, looking for two friends I thought I lost, and we're about to continue this suicide mission. To be honest, I couldn't be happier." Cid finished his speech. Yuffie was amazed, Cid was a simple old man to her, and he proved that by saying he was happy going on a suicide mission.

"Don't give me that look. You're in this for adventure too, I can tell. Now get down to the deck, I'm about to land." Yuffie didn't argue and walked off. She felt a little happy seeing how Cid worked. The only way she could describe it was that Cid was insane; then again she admitted everyone on the team had their share of quirks. Why would he be any different?

The entire gang had disembarked the Highwind and were only a few minutes away from the village. She wondered what it looked like. Nathan said it was his home and that it was a hot springs village. She already had experienced ones on Da-Chao and knew they were very relaxing. Maybe she would take a dip to calm her nerves. She had almost developed a twitch when thinking about finding Nate.

"Wow... this place is slow," She said when she got to the front of the village. All of the buildings were made of wood, the people she could see in the town all looked old to her too. She only noted maybe a few that were less than thirty years old. It was full of middle aged people and only a few younger faces could be seen here and there.

"Nate grew up here? I can't imagine." Barret said.

"They are both supposed to be here. Aeris, can you tell?" Tifa asked, she wasn't sure whether her powers would work or not. They seemed sporadic and only appeared when she was in a place made by the Ancients or had tons of Mako.

"It's hard to tell. The Mako fountains around here make it hard to find them." Aeris answered; disappointed she couldn't give a specific answer. She had yet to fully explore her abilities and desperately wanted too, the powers of the Cetra could help the whole team beat Jenova and Sephiroth, even stop Meteor. But she had reservations about that. She had prayed at the temple and was even able to finish. Yet Meteor loomed in the sky. Her materia being what she always said it was good for, absolutely nothing.

"Let's look around town, we'll find something." Vincent said. The gang explored the village more. Tifa was leading when she saw a small grey dog sitting in the middle of the dirt.

"What's the matter? Are you all alone?" The dog looked up as she knelt down.

"You got lost didn't you? Separated from someone you love..." She felt a ping when she said those words. She had cared for Cloud immensely and wanted to protect him. "Silly thing," She finished, shaking her head.

"You know it's been about a week since those two showed up. I feel sorry for the poky headed young one."

"I know, when he washed up he was holding onto that big sword like his life depended on it. The whole thing seemed unlucky to me. But did you see both of their eyes? That weird blue and that scary dark brown..."

"What?" Tifa's head snapped towards the two men talking. Those descriptions were just too similar to be a coincidence; the rest of the gang had the same look in their eyes as her.

"Wait a minute! What did you just say!" She ran up to the two older looking males.

"Excuse me! Those young people you were talking about..." One of the men turned to her.

"Yeah... a villager found the blond one a little ways down the coast, and the doctor found the other at that large fountain up north. Must have been a week ago," He explained, the other man next to him let out a low whistle.

"Poor kids must have drifted from pretty far." Tifa was almost beaming, there was no way it couldn't be them.

"Guys they're here! It has to be Cloud and Nate!" She almost jumped up and down in excitement.

"Good job Tifa" Cid said, a smile beaming on his face.

"Are you sure?" Barret asked.

"Good... I was worried." Nanaki added. Next Yuffie went to the two men.

"Where are they? Are they safe? Where is Nate now?" She asked urgently.

"They are up there, at the clinic." Yuffie started sprinting towards the building. She had reached the door and entered when she saw a small hallway with a couple of doors.

"Excuse me?" She looked over to see a nurse. "Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for a friend. Dark brown hair, brown eyes, kind of aloof. He washed up with a blond haired man?" She asked. The nurse thought for a second before point down the hall.

"Second door on your right." She said, Yuffie didn't hear the rest of her words as she turned and went straight until she came upon the door and opened it. Seeing Nate inside with multiple bandages all over his body. He looked up confused before he smiled.

"Took you guys long enough."

* * *

><p>I had been relaxing more during my stay in Mideel. Kunsel almost had to carry me back to the clinic when the pain from the battle finally caught back up to me. The doctor almost threw a fit seeing my new state of injury. But a few potions and two days rest had me back up to my older injury levels. I was confused when I didn't have the small natural healing factor Cloud had as a SOLDIER until the doctor explained that he had it from the multitude of other chemicals in his system from the SOLDIER process.<p>

I was agitated at that. Having Mako in my system was useful, if not a little creepy when I think about it being recycled souls. But the only factor that it affected was my magic potential. My body was a little stronger yeah, but apparently only enough to make sure I didn't break down from the stuff in my system. When Kunsel heard of my condition he was flabbergasted at my Mako enhancements not coming from Shinra.

Speaking of Kunsel, the doctor was at ease around the guy. Then again he was the only one to be kind to the man. I would never have believed SOLDIER got so bad, however Kunsel told me the story. Since all three of SOLDIER's best had been defeated that meant Shinra had to find people to replace them. This included lower standards for recruitment and even letting Hojo have more leeway on his experimentation to increase strength. Basically, in four years SOLDIER was being filled with weaklings or cocky Firsts. During his explanation I asked why he never moved up, I knew very little about him since he was a very minor character so I decided to expand.

"I had heard one of my friends, Zack, the one I talked about earlier, was killed in action during an apparently classified mission. I didn't believe it and started snooping around. I had a knack for gathering information and found the mission wasn't even a high priority one; it was small enough a group of Thirds could have done it, yet they sent Zack and General Sephiroth to investigate. Over the last four years I would find just a little more that made his disappearance suspicious. In the process I was demoted, in fact I'm lucky to still be a Second class. I had heard Hojo had obtained test samples after the mission." He shuffled a bit before continuing.

"I got to thinking about how Shinra did a lot of shady things with Turks. So I started scavenging around their files. I got a little to close when I found information about two samples that were taken from the mission four years ago had escaped and only Turks were sent to capture them. They then said if I investigated further my record would basically be sent through hell. I've been stuck with minor duties ever since."

"And you think your friend Zack was one of these samples?" I asked, feigning interest. I knew he was, but saying so would make Kunsel suspect me.

"It was the only thing I could think of. I had thought of every possible way he could have lived and they weren't right. When I was ordered to stop searching through the escaped sample case I thought I hit the nail on the head. I even sent a text to his old phone number hoping he would answer. I have to see for myself if he really did die. He would never go down so easy." It's true; it took a good chunk of Shinra's army to finally kill him off. I'm surprised they were able to keep a battle so close to Midgar under wraps. Covering secrets is Shinra's forte after all.

I heard the door open and saw the good doctor walk in. "Alright, enough chit chat, he's due for his check up. But I do need you to go out and get some potions from the item shop to help speed up his progress as well as a few herbs from the forest." Kunsel nodded and left. The doctor waved his hand for me to come when he was out. I got up and walked into the same room Cloud was being held.

"Now it's nothing major, I just need to check your arm as well as the other scars on you." I nodded. The first time he had changed my bandages I saw what was left of Sephiroth's assault on my body. Multiple slash marks were covering my torso, the occasional stab wound would appear as well as a particularly bad and long looking gash on my chest. The lack of care during my drift through the Lifestream along with the exposure to Mako made sure I had a permanent reminder of what happened.

"Well you're healing, that's good. Your arm is taking well to the potions and should heal in about a week or so. Now I must check on your friend. I trust you can put the bandages back on yourself?" I nodded and took the gauze from him. Before I exited the door I started hearing a loud mechanical noise in the distance.

"What the blazes?" The doctor said as he looked out the clinic window. "An airship? What would one be here for?" He asked. I almost felt my heart leap in excitement. It had been about a week and a half but everyone was finally here.

"I think my rides finally here doc." I said. He looked back at me before shaking his head and pulling it back in the window.

"I'm sure you're going to be doing stupider things than the incident earlier. I can't condone that in your condition." I was about to argue before he interrupted me.

"No buts, you need to heal up. I can't in good conscience allow you to fight in your condition. Now go change your bandages. I'm sure your friends will understand." I nodded and left. It was probably for the best that I didn't get in anymore trouble, but this was basically the most crucial part of the game with the search for Huge materia. I can't remember where everyone got their information but it was too big a risk not to be around to steer everyone in the right direction.

It was a few days ago that I realized that and made my choice of telling everyone what I really was. Even with my new strength and everyone getting better over time, it might not be enough to defeat Sephiroth at his most powerful and stumbling upon every amazing weapon and piece of gear would make me explain myself during a bad situation.

I was on my bed now wrapping up my bad arm having already covered my stomach and parts of my torso. Thank god it was my left arm that was broken, being right handed and having that gone would have driven me crazy with the simplest things.

Suddenly my door flew open, looking up I couldn't contain the smile on my face from spreading. Standing there was Yuffie, with a completely blank look in her eyes.

"Took you guys long enough." The immediate response was Yuffie tackling me in my bed.

"You're alive!" She shouted while squeezing the life out of me. I laughed in pain.

"I missed you too." I said. She only increased the pressure around me before mumbling.

"Stupid."

"Wait what?"

"I called you stupid! Do you know how horrible it was to see you fall? And here you are sitting around like it was no big deal! You're horrible!" She nuzzled into my chest. I could feel the tears stain my bandages. I actually started to feel bad about being happy now. Yuffie last saw me fall to my supposed death. Looking like it never happened was not the appropriate response.

"I'm sorry." I hugged her back. "I didn't want you to fall too. I did what I thought was best. But for all that its worth, I'm so sorry." I felt her loosen her hold on me a little. I could hear small sobs but she covered them up well. After a minute she had calmed down and the others had shown up.

"Damn you look beat up." Barret said first, eying my bandages.

"Drifting through the Lifestream and getting your ass kicked by SOLDIERs will do that to you Barret."

"You actually drifted through the Lifestream and still conscious? That doesn't seem possible." Vincent said.

"I have... special circumstances that helped me." I said. It's funny to think being half insane saved what I had left of my mind.

"Nate, where's Cloud? Isn't he with you?" Tifa asked. I tried to keep the frown off my face but failed.

"One more door down to your left. Tifa... I want you to know Cloud wasn't as lucky as me." She stared at me for a full minute before walking to the next room. Most of the group followed her leaving me with Nanaki.

"Don't you want to see him; everyone else was worrying about him too." He looked away.

"You have a way of describing things. I would rather take your word than see him now." I nodded.

"I also... divulged you knew where Cloud would be." He said, surprising me. "I suspect you will be questioned soon enough." He looked down. I sighed.

"Don't worry; I had decided to tell them about myself around this time. Things are about to get hectic, and we all need full trust for what's ahead of us." He nodded. We both heard footsteps coming towards the door.

"That's... evil." Cid mumbled.

"I never knew the Lifestream could be so harmful." Aeris added.

"Poor lad," Cait said.

"Now now, we should all wait outside. Mr. River please come along." I got up and followed the group outside with Nanaki following.

"Doctor what about him... you know, Cloud?" Barret said. The doctor adjusted his glasses.

"I'll say it again. He's got Mako poisoning. I've never seen a case this bad. The immense amount of Mako drenched knowledge was put into his brain all at once. One other human has survived this, and it's a miracle even you did River."

"Falling into the Lifestream, washin up here." Barret looked down.

"Now remember, the light of hope can be found anywhere. IF Mr. River could survive this then you can hope your other friend will recover."

"Was Nathan... similar when he came up?" Yuffie asked, the doctor shook his head.

"He was actually worse off. He wasn't even conscious when I found him. His body looked like it was killing itself. But the next day he was on his feet trying to walk." The whole group stared at me, I felt uncomfortable under the attention.

"He didn't have Mako poisoning?" Cait asked.

"No, in fact it was remarkable what happened. The Mako went with his system almost naturally after he was recovered. He is the only case ever to have had this." Again, stares from everyone.

"That's impossible. No one can have that good a synchronization with Mako, not even the best of SOLDIER applicants." Cait said.

"Well he is the exception to that," The doctor said.

"I don't understand." Yuffie said. Before anyone could explain to her the clinic door opened to reveal Tifa.

"Hey... you okay?" Barret asked.

"Yes... I'm sorry I had you all worried... I have something I want to tell you all." Tifa walked back into the clinic. Slowly everyone followed until we were all crowded into Cloud's room. Tifa was staring straight at a wall; a far off look was in her eyes.

"I don't care about anything else... only Cloud." She turned back. Getting a full look at her I could now tell her eyes had a very dead feeling to them, as if she was hollow.

"I... want to be by his side..." She looked back at Cloud.

"Hang in there Tifa." Cid said.

"Yeah, this is probably best for the both of you," Barret added.

"I'm sorry everyone. At a time like this..." She didn't finish, she looked on the verge of tears.

"Don't worry Tiff; we'll stop by again at another time," Cait said, even his chipper tone now heavy and downtrodden.

"Take care now, and take care of Cloud too." Barret said. Tifa nodded.

"Right." Barret turned to leave but stopped and looked over his shoulder.

"Tifa... I'm sorry for asking but... is he really your childhood friend, and not Sephiroth's shadow?" Tifa looked at Cloud. She looked doubtful before she shook her head.

"I'm sure he is!" She said with a new determination.

"Okay, sorry for asking. We're heading back to the Highwind now." The group started to file out the door.

"Wait." I called. Everyone stopped.

"I want you guys to come to my room. I have something to tell you all." I said before walking out and to my room. I sat on my bed as I waited for everyone to file in. First was Nanaki who took to sitting at my side. Yuffie was next and she stood next to the bed. Then Aeris, Cid, Barret, Cait, Vincent, and finally Tifa.

"What is it kid? You can't come either?" Cid asked, I shook my head.

"Well I might not, not unless you have a licensed doctor on board. Otherwise the one here wants me for a week. No, I have to tell this to you all now." I saw the look of confusion in everyone's eyes. I took a deep breath.

"I... was never born in Mideel, my parents never worked for Shinra. I am a different person compared to what you think I am." Everyone's eyes widened.

"Nate, what are you saying?" Yuffie asked, she looked frantic.

"Well kid spit it out, what's wrong? You didn't trust us or...?"

"How can I explain this to you so it seems clearer... I'm... not from Gaia." Everyone had various looks on their faces.

"What do you mean?" Tifa asked, now focusing on the situation at hand.

"I mean I am not from this Planet."

"Wait... are you a Sephiroth clone?" Barret asked, his eyes narrowing.

"No no... I don't come from Gaia but I'm not like Jenova."

"Nate you are not making sense here and I don't like it." Cid said. I rubbed my head. An idea popped up before I looked at Tifa.

"Tifa... you remember that dream you had back at Junon? You were in darkness and no one was around. That is until you saw Cloud in the distance and ran after him."

"Nate what the hell are you..."

"How do you know that?" She suddenly asked, eyes wide. Everyone looked back at her. "I didn't tell anyone about that dream." Instead of answering her I moved to Barret.

"You remember when you told everyone the story about Shinra destroying Corel, and that you and Dyne had both lost your arms and he seemingly fell to his death until you killed him back at Gold saucer?" Everyone looked to see Barret staring wide eyed at me.

"You didn't tell me about that either." I said.

"River... what is going on" Vincent asked.

"Vince... you have one more transformation. A monster held back in your chest. One that has the capacity to destroy the Planet. The king of mayhem... Chaos." The reaction was different as I swiftly found a gun pointed in my direction.

"There is only one man in the world that knows that. It isn't possible anyone else alive would know this. Explain how you do." I tried to remain calm; however I could feel the sweat dripping of my face from the nervousness of being shot.

"I know nearly every detail about you all. I know your pasts, your personalities, your secret powers, your skeletons... and your future."

"Nathan... who are you?" Aeris asked, apprehension in her eyes.

"What if I told you all... that on my world you are nothing more than fiction..."


	38. Chapter 38

A/N Awww, i like Monday releases more than Wednesday ones, but with this i can upload Saturday! now this is a short chappi since i want to get back into action. However i do want to note i am very jealous of people who can draw now. I found the image uploader and i can not tell you how much i wish i could draw so i could have one picture of Nate with the crew or something at the front page. But to bad...stupid drawing skills

But hey we broke the 300 review threshhold so yeah wooooo, time to finish this up, then on with the show!

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><p>Ch 38<p>

"Its official, the kids finally lost it. I knew it would happen." Cid said, rubbing his head and annoying me.

"Cid, he is completely serious." Nanaki said. The man just looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Bullshit. World is just fiction, know everything about us. Nice try, I've been around too long to fall for that." He responded.

"Cid he just told me about a dream I had a week ago without telling anybody, and he wasn't anywhere near us when Barret told us what really happened to Corel." Tifa argued.

"You're believing what he's saying now?"

"Well no... but..."

"Does anyone else here believe what the kids saying?" Cid asked. He looked over at Vincent who still had his gun pointed at me.

"Please put that down." I asked.

"You will tell me where you got that information." He stated coldly. Looking into his eyes I could see revealing that piece of information was a big mistake. He was usually so emotionless; I thought the worst he would get would be a small amount of anger, not wanting to put a bullet in my head mad.

"I know because I have seen your lives from my world." I restated.

"I want the truth." He said, narrowing his eyes.

"Vincent I want you to think like the Turk you once were. Explain any theory you have about me knowing about a dream Tifa had, your past, everything I've told you. What is the most logical conclusion in your head?" I asked. I knew any idea he had would be scraped. If I was affiliated with Shinra then I would have had records. If I found the information on the journey, then what about Tifa?

"Vincent calm down." Nanaki added. Slowly the man put his gun down as he processed every situation.

"Nate you aren't making sense and it's pissing me off. Now tell us what the hell do you mean?" Barret more or less ordered.

"I don't belong on Gaia. I'm not like Jenova either. I come from Earth, a planet very different yet similar to this." I explained.

"What do you mean by fiction?" Cait asked, very curious.

"On earth there is a... story. It is about a group of nine people wanting to stop a very powerful man from destroying their world and becoming a god... You guys are all of the main characters." I didn't want to mention they were a game, saying I controlled their actions would come back to haunt me at certain decisions.

"Nate it's still confusing. If we are fiction then... How does this all work then?" Yuffie asked, most likely humoring me.

"Think if you all were reading Loveless, when suddenly you're in the story yourself. You interact with the characters, the plot, the environment... It's all like reality when you're in it... That's what I'm in right now."

"You honestly expect us to believe this?" Cid asked.

"I am asking you keep an open mind."

"You don't even have solid proof. Who can back you up on this?"

"I can assure you Nathan is very serious." Nanaki finally admitted. Everyone finally started paying attention to the single non-robotic animal of the group.

"Red?" Tifa started.

"I found out in Cosmo Canyon. I didn't believe it at first but grandpa believed him and soon enough I did as well."

"You actually believe what he's spouting?" Barret almost yelled.

"He has been one hundred percent correct on his predictions when he told me about them. He has tried to ease our adventure."

"Well then what has he done to help us? I haven't seen anything that's been done to help us." Cid argued.

"Why don't you ask Aeris." I said.

"What does she know too?" Cait asked, I shook my head.

"She was sure she was going to die back at the Ancient City, in fact she went knowing full well she was going to die. At the last minute I took the hit for her. If I didn't know what was going to happen then she would be dead right now." Everyone froze at the words before Barret turned to Aeris.

"You... knew you were going to die?" He asked, she only looked down sadly.

"She wanted to make sure everyone was safe. Even at the cost of her own life," I elaborated. "She knew she was going to die, but she went to the city to pray for Holy, the one thing that could stop Meteor." Aeris didn't look anyone in the eye. She kept staring down at the floor.

"Damn..." Cid said, not knowing what to say about the situation. In fact everyone seemed tense.

"So everything you're telling us is true?" Aeris finally spoke up. I nodded.

"And you've lied to us." Barret stated.

"I did lie, but only because my situation was damn near unbelievable."

"How can we trust you after this?" Now I was getting angry.

"Barret I have done damn near nothing selfish in this team. I have nothing to gain from adventuring except maybe recognition. I have tried to help everyone on this team including you. You're no different for keeping Corel to yourself when we got there. You didn't want something to come out, I don't know the reason why, but we all waited for you to open up yourself." Before I could continue my rant I heard a stumble in the hallway as well as everyone else. Barret, being closest to the door, had looked out before holding out his gun arm.

"Freeze! Hands up where I can see them!" I heard multiple objects fall as the rest of the group looked out and seemed to get more alert.

"Listen, I don't want any trouble." That voice... now of all times.

"Then you shouldn't have come to this island, I don't care how many of you are here, I'll take you all down."

"Barret put down your gun. He's with me." I said.

"What?" he said, not moving his arm. Although my muscles were tense I got up out of bed and walked in front of his arm. Behind him I saw Kunsel with the herbs and potions he was getting now on the floor.

"Listen I ran into Kunsel here. He is a really good guy and I can vouch for him. I offered if he wanted to be a part of AVALANCHE and he said he would be happy to." My explanation did not quell the anger clearly on Barrets face.

"You were going to let some random jerk from Shinra into AVALANCHE. Cid's right, you've lost your mind."

"I don't appreciate you calling me insane." I said through my teeth.

"Is this just another thing you covered up until you wanted to reveal it when you wanted?" Barret accused.

"Listen I know you guys don't like Shinra, and I agree. It's a bad place. My friend Zack was taken by them." He explained.

"...Kunsel?" I looked to see Aeris with wide eyes looking at the second class SOLDIER.

"Aeris? It is you! You're in AVALANCHE? !" Kunsel said excitedly, forgetting about Barret pointing a gun at him.

"You know him too?"

"Put that down. Kunsel is a good guy." Aeris almost scolded at Barret. The man finally lowered his weapon before Aeris walked up to Kunsel with a small smile.

"It's good to see you again Kunsel." She said. The only way to see his happiness was the toothy grin he had.

"Same here, I never knew that you left Midgar." He mentioned.

"You stopped visiting a long time ago." He rubbed the back of his head and looked down.

"I got in trouble trying to find Zack, and eventually one of the Turks found me and said I should stop lest certain targets get scared." Aeris nodded, understanding the implication.

"After a few more warnings I was demoted and put on missions a green third could do. I was called to investigate the town for your friend when I ran into him and... Well I'm here now." He said, avoiding mentioning about the betrayal he went through.

"And now you want to join AVALANCHE." Barret said.

"I just want to help out. It won't be official; I just give you guys' information and other things. I'm good at that kind of stuff." He held his hands up non-threateningly.

"I think it's a good idea." Aeris said. Barret looked at her odd.

"I don't trust him." Barret stated, I snorted.

"You too. I don't know what you're spouting. But you're saying you could prevent a lot of things. Well you didn't prevent sector seven from collapsing, you didn't prevent my daughter from being caught, and you didn't tell us Cait was the spy. You held to many important things from us, and now we still have to save the Planet ourselves." Barret walked past everyone and out of the clinic. Soon he was followed by Cid, Cait, and Vincent.

"You knew Cloud would end up like this?" Tifa approached. I only nodded; she shook her head before walking back to his room. Next I saw Yuffie walk up. Fully expecting another lash I instead got a pat on my shoulder. Looking up I saw Yuffie with a smile.

"I don't really know what's going on Nate. But you helped me more than anyone that I have ever known. You've done a lot for everyone else too. You're still a really nice guy." I couldn't keep the smile off my face.

"But... You owe me for lying about where you are from," Yuffie said seriously.

"Well this is better than the whole group hating me. So what do you want, half of my materia? All my gil from now on?" I asked, still smiling at Yuffie for partially accepting where I was from. I think it would be good if I ease everything into everyone's perspective. It will be hard, but maybe the gang would understand me.

"You will be spending gil alright... Next time you take me out." I looked at Yuffie wide eyed, seeing the familiar mischievous smile.

"You owe me after acting like you were going to die twice. I will make you pay, just be happy that I'm not going to hit you until you wished you were dead." She walked off after that.

"I guess there is some good that came out of this." Nanaki said, walking out of my room.

"This... actually was as bad as I thought it would end. It was still horrible, but more bearable than I thought it would be." I said. I heard light giggling to my left when I realized Aeris hadn't left.

"It's alright Nathan. And just so you know...I always did know you were different from everyone else." I nodded.

"Was it the Planet? I'm sure that's what told you about me." I was always curious about why Aeris acted odd when I first met her in person.

"Not entirely. You always... felt different from everyone." I rose and eyebrow before she explained.

"I could tell when certain people were from the Lifestream, or whether a person was good or bad."

"You could hear the Planet throughout your life. Don't worry; I know what you're getting at."

"Well everyone is a part of the Planet; they are all connected to it and call back to it, even if they don't know. When I saw you... I couldn't hear anything."

"Don't I have a soul like everyone else?" I just thought the Planet knew I wasn't from here, I didn't think I felt different.

"Where ever you're from Nathan, you don't have a connection to your world like we do ours. Your soul didn't have the... resonance that Gaia's Lifestream does. That's what threw me off, but now that you say this...I think I can understand better."

"In all honesty Aeris I knew you would be understanding towards me, I know you don't get this either but the more we journey the more I'll show you guys what I know. But I have to ask... is the Planet afraid of me?" I asked, Sure Aeris was apprehensive but I can't tell how the world thought of me as a whole.

"It's been... cautious. You aren't like Jenova, you don't have the same... taint as that thing. But you don't have the same feel a normal person does."

"Hey back where I come from you're weird and I'm normal." I added. Aeris had a small giggle before continuing.

"I do have to ask... are we really just fiction like you said? Nothing more than characters made up to predestined events?" She sounded sad as she said those words.

"Since I've been here for about a month and a half I can't say anymore. Honestly I prefer Gaia over Earth, its worse off. But in a way it's an easier life."

"What are you talking about?' Kunsel interrupted.

"Kunsel this is a can of worms I don't want to share with yet. Maybe after everything blows over I'll tell you. But right now did you get the PHS I wanted from the store?" I asked, happy to change the subject finally.

"You owe me 300 gil, the model is new compared to the ones your friends have."

"Yeah, my old phone could kick every other phone's ass in this world. In fact when this is all over I'm going to get Cait to reverse engineer it. Having better phones can be a small improvement for the Planet."

"Why Cait? And can't you just tell him how you made it?" Aeris asked.

"Sorry to say but that was a lie too. The stuff I brought with me was made by companies there. And between us, Cait's controller is one of the smarter people of Shinra, just trust me."

"I'll take your word for it." She turned away from me and back to Kunsel. "It's good you're here Kunsel, we could use another friend." She said with a smile before walking off. I helped Kunsel pick up the doctor's items before he left.

"You didn't mention that they knew each other." Nanaki said.

"I didn't think I would run in with Kunsel. He really wasn't an integral part of the story besides tutorials in the prequel. He never made an appearance since then."

"You think he'll be able to help though?"

"In the future, yeah. In the game he always had news the player could use and even found out secrets that would have been covered up. If he wasn't a SOLDIER I would have thought he was a Turk." Kunsel always found out a lot in Crisis Core, it just seemed uncanny to me.

"And what you said to Aeris, you prefer Gaia to your own home?"

"I do miss Earth, I miss my mom, dad, my brothers, I miss being normal and sitting around and enjoying the simplest things. Yet being here I have come to enjoy the adventure, life on the move, a whole different kind of family. I don't even have to feel the problems I had back home."

"You told me before, no monsters, your government is stable. It does seem better."

"Yeah, but in this world it's strength that determines how well you are in life. Can't solve a problem? You just train until you're strong enough to get through it. Monster extermination would always be a paying job; really mercenaries have it made here."

"Yet it doesn't work back on earth?" Nanaki asked.

"The problems are less about strength, more mental and emotional. Getting a job is actually hard even if you have talent. People aren't helpful like here, basically it's more tedious, chips at your soul, and the payoff isn't as good as you hope. Sometimes... I really am happy I was brought here, I don't have to worry about the regular problems."

"Just saving the world."

"I say it's a fair trade off." I started walking out of the clinic. "Nanaki I need you to show me around the Highwind, I'm hoping I can find something that will help get me something here." He nodded before we both left the clinic and went to the outskirts of the town. Seeing the airship in person was almost breath taking. It was much bigger than I believed it was, and looked even better. The inside was just as awesome. It was surprisingly easy to navigate the giant plane with Nanaki. I would have thought something like the Highwind would have directions all over the place for people to use.

"Where do you want me to take you?"

"The chocobo stables." He nodded and started walking. Nanaki had learned not to ask questions when it came to things like this. But soon enough the familiar farm smell filled my nostrils as he led me to the area.

"Hey can you help me?" I asked the stable manager.

"Yes?"

"Do you have greens on this ship? Preferably mimett?"

"We should, it's a common enough strain. You have a Chocobo you want to keep here?"

"No, I just need a handful of the stuff." The handler nodded before going to a basket and pulled out what looked like a small pumpkin to me.

"Here you are."

"That's a mimett green?" I didn't know what chocobo greens looked like all that much. I always assumed they looked like alfalfa and such.

"Yes it is, never seen one before?"

"Nope, but I guess you're the expert." It's the fact it looks like a pumpkin, it throws me off a little. I took the hand sized... vegetable I guess, and had Nanaki lead me back out of the ship. I took the lead and started for one of the item shops.

"Out of my way!" I was suddenly bumped into by a woman much older than me before she rushed passed me to a different store. I got up and made sure nothing was re-broken before I followed.

"Something to do with that woman?"

"No, it's about the little chocobo following her." Sure enough the crazy woman was at another item shop buying a good chunk of the inventory and the little white chocobo was trying to keep up. I really couldn't condone what she was doing, technically she was being smart and making a major profit, but selling back the items she bought at damn near triple the price to the people she bought them from after a catastrophe was wrong. I shook my head before I knelt down for the little chocobo. When it got close I held out the green for it to smell.

I couldn't tell how old the thing was, it was obviously not a chick, it had similar features to an adult chocobo, but it wasn't any bigger than a football. But the little chocobo "kwehed" happily before it started eating the mimett green. Surprisingly it ate the hand sized pumpkin with ease before it looked back at me expectantly. Remembering, I rubbed the chocobo around the back of its head. I didn't quite know where a bird's ears were but the little thing seemed to like it. When I pulled back the chocobo ran off.

"This is going to help?" Nanaki asked.

"For some reason all of the best materia are from side quests or doing odd things. That chocobo has a Contain materia, something very powerful even with its starting spell." I always liked the Contain materia, it had my favorite Final Fantasy spell after all. But it was going to be a hassle trying to level it up so I could use Flare. My thoughts where cut of when I saw the chocobo come back with the materia in its little beak. I gladly took the jewel and scratched its ears again.

"Are there anymore items you need from here?"

"No, the only thing left is a cursed ring and that's going to be useless in the future."

"What are you going to do now?"

"Do we have a medic on the Highwind?"

"I'm sure we do."

"Good, that means I can go with you guys, within the next day or so Shinra is going to be moving the Huge materia. I need to be around as much as possible so they don't go to waste."

"The Huge materia are that important?"

"Technically we could lose them all and still go on, but they have extremely useful spells so I recommend we don't lose any. Now I'm going to the doctor's, I need to notify him I'm leaving. Could you go to the Highwind and tell everyone to wait for me if they're about to take off?" He nodded and walked away while I started to make a beeline to the doctor's office when I saw Kunsel looking around town.

"Kunsel, you good?" He turned and had a slightly alarmed look.

"No, I just got a call from headquarters."

"Something wrong?" Hopefully nothing had happened yet.

"Technically, my squad was called to mobilize at Fort Condor, I don't know all the details but something is going on in a few days." So plans were already being made to storm Fort Condor, and I remember forces were already at Corel.

"Kunsel I need you to stay here, I think with all of the chaos going on they might forget a few squads getting in to storm the fort."

"Why do I need to stay?"

"I need you to get the village to start packing up, notify people there is a possible invasion of some kind, a natural disaster, something, I don't know! I just need you to make sure most of the people here are ready to leave at a moment's notice." I don't know if most of the people of the village survived but I won't chance Ultima WEAPON not taking as many lives as possible.

"Is something going to happen?"

"Possibly, I just need to know that these people can leave in a moment's notice."

"I guess I can do that, but I'll need an explanation." I sighed.

"You'll get it when everyone is safe. Now I have to talk to the doctor, I'm going with AVALANCHE to stop some stupid decisions Shinra is making." I ran off before he could answer and got inside the clinic. I looked around before going into Cloud's room to see Tifa sitting on the bed next to Cloud's wheelchair and the doctor looking at a few vials of medicine.

"Doctor, I found out there's a medic on board the ship. So I'm going with my friends." The old man looked at me before going back to examining the medicine.

"I know, the medic came here to get some supplies." Oh, well good thing he did. I really didn't know if we had a decent medic on the Highwind. I really didn't interact with the crew while I was on it.

"I have advised him to keep you on board at all times and make sure you do not fight. I know how stubborn you are but you're not stupid." I nodded to the doctor before going back to my room and gathered my things. Holstering my swords and putting on my backpack I walked out the clinic. Hopefully I made the right decisions today, but that still left problems for me to figure out.

Holy hadn't worked for some reason. Aeris was alive now, I would have thought it would have worked fast if she was alive but I can't think why it would keep going canonically. And now I have to figure out how Cloud is going to get his memories back without having Tifa's brain fried in the process. Then there are the WEAPONs and the fact a few of them are boss battles. I can't even begin to think of a way of taking on a skyscraper of an enemy. I just hope events keep falling into place, maybe I'll be able to figure out the holes with time. But until then, the first thing on my mind is catching a certain train.


	39. Chapter 39

A/N alright saturday, feels good to be normally updated again. However more things keep popping up in my life so I might start irregular downloads at some point. I don't believe that will happen this week but this is just so you guys have a heads up if I'm late on updates again.

I'd like to shout out to Saria19 for her's in her latest chapter on her fic Between Worlds by the way.

Now on with the reading

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><p>Ch 39<p>

The lift off from the Highwind was almost exhilarating; it was like the build up at the start of a roller coaster, but without the sudden smash of G-forces to the face. That was the only enjoyment I got out of the flight though. Going up to the bridge everyone seemed to be in some sort of depression. I could hardly blame them though. The world was going to hell, their main leader was incapacitated, and they found out another friend was lying to them. In fact I didn't feel all that hot either.

"You too?" Looking up I saw Yuffie come over and sit down, the same downtrodden look in her eyes like the rest of the group.

"Yeah, the whole week for everyone has been probably the most hectic, and sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it's even more of an uphill battle from here on out." She sighed and looked at the floor.

"But you can help right? You know everything that's going to happen."

"Not everything, just the major story plot. Which has remained relatively unchanged actually."

"Why would it not be the same?" She asked.

"While I've been here, technically I have influenced decisions and people in ways they weren't originally supposed to. By all means I thought there would be a drastic difference in plot by now." I'd have thought saving Aeris would cause more of the story to be changed besides Cloud's recovery getting complicated.

"Be happy nothing big has happened. Because that would mean you wouldn't know anything." Wow, she's got me there. Its better nothing's changed at all than everything at once.

"What is going to happen then?" A very deep voice asked. I heard Vincent's metal shoes walk up to me and Yuffie.

"So you believe now?" I asked, I couldn't tell if he did considering that cloak covers everything.

"I would like to see more proof of your... situation." Fair enough, Vincent was the cynical type of person.

"Has Barret been in here yet?" Yuffie shook her head.

"Then he is going to walk in here most likely confused, then Cait will have information about the Huge materia; which is very important to obtain by the way, one is going to be in Corel which we will head to first and another at Fort Condor." Thank god Shinra didn't mobilize at the Fort yet, time constrictions are horrible now that I can't just screw around and get a bunch of items.

Soon enough Barret walked into the room. The look on his face told me how torn he was. The team's leader was gone, and he didn't feel like he should take the spot. Maybe a month ago he would have gladly jumped straight in. Now, Barrets matured quite a bit over time.

"What are we going to do? What can we do?" Apparently he expected an answer, when he turned he looked impatient.

"Ain't there something we can do? And don't tell me it's to wait till Clouds better." His eyes landed on me but Cait had walked up to answer.

"I've got some news."

"Yeah, what? That you're a spy?"

"Yeah... I already told you I was." He answered awkwardly.

"Don't lash out on him Barret, he didn't do anything wrong... Well lately he hasn't." I said. The large man ignored me however and kept staring at Cait.

"Well, both gya ha ha and kya ha ha, are up to something." I snickered at Heidegger and Scarlet's nicknames. Both really did have those really annoying kind of laughs.

"Wanna eavesdrop?"

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><p>Reeve adjusted the listening device under his coat. Rufus had called for a meeting not two minutes after Nathan's prediction. Since he had listened to how he came about he couldn't help but be skeptical. Yet it explained so much about him. His lack of files, incredible luck and guessing, He didn't make the phone or music player but simply brought them from his world. Every time he rationalized something to prove against him the story would hold up.<p>

It was ridiculous to outright believe him, it was an impossible situation. Then again he never expected to help topple the company he was currently working for as well as fight a 2000 year old creature that controlled said company's most powerful warrior.

"Now then...we have two issues." Reeve started paying attention to Rufus at the other end of the table. He was standing in the corner of the meeting room while Heidegger and Palmer took seats in the middle.

"One, destroy Meteor. Two, remove the barrier surrounding the Northern Cave and defeat Sephiroth... any ideas?" Reeve stiffened a little when Heidegger started laughing.

"Gya hah ha hah! We already solved the first problem! Meteor will soon be smashed to bits!" He slammed his fist down on the table in confidence.

"The plan has already been set in motion. Namely, to collect Huge materia from every region." Rufus showed some hesitation at the plan. Reeve felt it as well. Before Nathan he had only heard of Huge materia once. It was from...

"Huge materia is a high density special type of materia made through a special compression process in Mako reactors." Scarlet walked in, a very smug smile on her face. "The energy extracted from it is 330 times the strength of a normal materia. Kya ha ha! How about that?" Reeve noticed the flinch Rufus had from Scarlet's laughter.

"We will gather all the Huge materia together and ram it into Meteor. That will cause a huge explosion! Reducing the meteor to bits."

"You're going to ram Meteor? Do you think we have the technology to do it?" Reeve would have agreed with Rufus. Shinra was advanced but he couldn't think of to many ways to successfully pull off Scarlet's plan. The trail of thought led him back to Nathan, making him wonder how technology advancement was for him.

"Don't worry about that! More importantly, we've got to collect Huge materia from each area." Scarlet waved off any concern.

"We've already collected materia from Nibelheim. All that's left is Corel and Fort Condor. I've already dispatched troops to Corel." Reeves eyes momentarily widened. Nathan's prediction was spot on. Something that he couldn't possibly have simply predicted.

"Then this meeting is adjourned. I expect results." Rufus finished. Reeve left and went straight for his office.

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><p>"Corel!" Barret yelled. "What else can they do to Corel?"<p>

"And the Huge materia, something is supposed to happen when smaller ones are near them." Nanaki added. I groaned, if we had to master all of the magic just to get one master materia I was going to shatter the jewels.

"We can't let Shinra get a hold of the Huge materia! And when Cloud wakes up, I'm gunna show him the Huge materia. He'll be shocked." Good to know he's looking to the positive side.

"So what are you saying Barret? Even though you're always knocking on him, you really want Cloud to return huh?" Cait asked. Barret turned away.

"I ain't sayin nothing about nothin. So you... shut your face." I openly laughed at Barret. No matter how much he didn't want to admit it the blonde grew on him.

"Every groups got to have a leader, and that's me... or at least I want to be... But I ain't cut out to be leader. I never knew that till now" Barret walked over to Cid, who had been sleeping the entire time. The pilot had suddenly awoken to the heavy footsteps and stood up.

"What's going on?"

"You been chosen to be the new leader." The momentary surprise on Cid's face was priceless.

"Nope, forget it. Too much of a pain in the ass." He shook his head.

"But for us to fight, we gotta have Highwind, and you. We need it to save the Planet. And who's running this ship? You! That's why you're our new leader, ain't no one else can." Cid looked around the room at everyone. No one argued with Barret and no one seemed to want to take charge themselves.

"Hmm... This ships going to save the Planet huh? That's gunna be tough. Oh man, that went straight to my heart." Cid looked unsure before he shook his head and pumped his fist.

"I'm a man too! Okay, I'll do it! Everyone follow me!" Cid said, a certain fire in his eyes seemed to show.

"Awright, now here's the first job. Operation room's waiting for you."

"Yeah!" Cid basically ran out of the room. I couldn't hold my laughter in. Cid pumping himself up has got to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Barret was amused as well and chuckled before yelling at him down the hall.

"Yo Cid. When you're ready. We're heading to the Corel reactor. You better hurry up mister leader."

"Looks like I better get ready." I said, getting up.

"You're going to fight?" Yuffie asked.

"Hell no. I'm not stupid; I'm going to tell you guys as much as I can before everybody runs off. Do I look like the kind of guy that would try to fight with a broken arm?"

"You've pushed yourself through worse."

"Not helping Nanaki." I looked over to the cat.

"So what should we expect from Corel?" He asked. Vincent and Yuffie both looked at me expectantly.

"Shinra is going to transport the Huge materia via train. But the problem is Corel is in the middle of the tracks."

"You mean they're just going to smash through the town?" Yuffie asked.

"WHAT!" Barret barged right past Nanaki and almost got into my face.

"They're going to destroy Corel?"

"To them Corel is just an obstacle. So the sooner we get there, the more time we have to save them." Barret seemed to calm down but promptly walked to the Operations room.

"I really do hope we have enough time to stop them. How fast is this thing?"

"The Highwind can travel up to 386 knots." One of the crew members informed me.

"So... like over 200 miles?" I asked. I really don't know much about planes. They get to places faster than cars, that's the most important part to me

"Closer to 450 miles sir."

"Oh... so how long till we arrive at Corel?"

"A few hours." At least that puts things in perspective.

"Hopefully we have enough time. They did say they already sent troops out to the area."

"Everyone to the Operation room! On the double!" I heard over the intercom. Everyone left the bridge and arrived. It looked like a war room to me. It had a large wooden table in the center along with a screen displaying data about the airship.

"No chairs?" I asked.

"Just stand like a man." Cid said at the other end.

"Great, this is just like Mass Effect Two, a billion gil ship and Shinra can't afford to put in chairs for the Operations room."

"Quit your bitching, you're going to do most of the talking."

"Wait what?"

"You said you know what's going to happen. So you're going to fill everyone in on how we're going to do this right. Time to prove yourself kid."

"Umm." Well this was a little awkward...never thought I would be in this.

"Come on Nate." Yuffie elbowed me. I nodded and went to the other end of the table with Cid.

"So what are we expecting kid?" He asked.

"Well... Shinra is going to get the Huge materia out of there by train. Cid you're going to have to catch up to it and jump on with a couple other people."

"How the fuck am I going to drive a train?" I shrugged.

"It looked easy from where I was. Look I can only give you a solid base. Your actions are your own. Now you have a time limit of about ten minutes. You have to fight a few enemies on the train but nothing you guys can't handle. I recommend Barret as well as maybe Vincent. Guns will be really useful, and make sure to stock up on good materia, including healing ones. I'll give you a few of mine if you ask. When you get to the front, alternate between brakes and accelerating."

"How can we be sure this works?" Barret asked.

"I'm pretty sure this is how it will work Barret. Corel will be safe and you hailed as a hero, not the bad guy."

"How well can we trust this? How do we know you didn't mess up before?"

"Barret, I know you don't like it when people lie to you. You're still pissed at Cait and now you're pissed at me. Now is not the time. Yes bad shit has happened, but sadly I can't prevent every horrible thing that happens." Barret snorted before leaving the room, I sighed.

"That's everything. Just remember what I said and you're covered. Just be careful about the time limit." I really wish I could help more but I need my arm to be back at one hundred percent before I can try anything.

"Meetings done. Tell the brute I want him with me. He knows the area. I'll take darkness with me too. Get ready; it won't be too long until we reach Corel." Cid nodded towards me before walking out himself.

"It looks like most of the group is taking this well enough." Aeris walked next to me. I decided to head to the bridge again so I could get a look at how fast we were going.

"Barret's still on my case. And Cid is basically tolerating it. Cait is going to rationalize, Vincent's coming around. It's been more of a hassle than anything. Plus I have problems to think about for the future..."

"Nathan you need to calm down. Take deep breaths." I did just that and stopped at the bridge railing.

"I'm good... It feels like I've been thinking a mile a minute lately."

"You've got to stay calm. If you get flustered you might do something wrong and hurt yourself."

"I know, it's just harder now with all of the extra pressure. It was easier when Nanaki was the only one to know what was going on. Now Barret's pissed for no reason and Tifa probably hates me." They were the first two people I really got along with too.

"Well... Could you have thought of a way to stop Marlene from being taken hostage?"

"Well no, but…"

"Did you have a fool-proof plan to stop Sector Seven's destruction?"

"I..."

"And did you think it was necessary for Cloud to go through the Lifestream?"

"...Yes. It was necessary." If he had never gone through, he would have been susceptible to Sephiroth. When he got his real persona he was able to fight off the control.

"Then you have done what you thought was right. You did get most of Sector Seven out before it collapsed with the help of your other friends." I have got to do something for Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie when this is over.

"But now Cloud won't be himself." I realized.

"Why?"

"Tifa and Cloud both fall into the Lifestream when you all went back to Mideel. You, being a part of the Lifestream then, were able to protect them from being flooded with Mako... But now that you're here..."

"Then I will have to try to protect them as I am now." Aww Aeris, looking to the positive side. As always.

"I'm not sure how that will work. Your abilities are really limited Aeris. You haven't had enough time to practice your powers as a Cetra. In the Lifestream you had more influence. It's a problem I have been trying to solve for some time." She put her hand on my shoulder.

"I said calm down. You'll think of something. Just give it time, and it will work out." How is it she always sounded so reassuring? Back on Earth Aeris would have been the greatest therapist ever.

"I guess you're right." We both stood at the railing for some time. The silence was nice, complemented by the ground rushing past outside.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You just did." Aeris made a small smile to the joke, but it fell quick enough.

"Do you know how...Zack went?" I looked back out the window.

"Shinra basically sent its army after him. Both he and Cloud were experimented on at the same time. Zack was maybe a day's walk away from Midgar before Shinra got to him. Tseng had actually ordered for the Turks to find him before the army did. But they were too late. I don't know how many he fought, but Zack took a good number of Shinra's army with him before he was finally done." Aeris looked like she was about to cry the entire time.

"He got all of your letters. Albeit all at once, bet he was happy you still waited for him after four years. I know you can sense him, and I'm sure he's happy right now." Aeris nodded, a few tears fell before she quickly wiped them off.

"Thank you." She said.

"You're welcome." I walked off towards the medic's room. I wanted to heal while everyone went on the mission. Hopefully I would be better for the battle at Fort Condor.

* * *

><p>"Damn this place is depressing." Cid mumbled. The Highwind had landed a few minutes before and Cid along with Barret and Vincent had entered the slum-like village.<p>

"Alright so we have to head to the reactor. Barret I need you to guide us." Cid ordered. Barret apparently didn't hear him. The man looked so depressed looking at all of the people walking around, but he also noticed the glares the people sent their way, all directed at Barret.

"Yeah, let's go." he finally said. Cid and Vincent followed behind him as he led them on the train tracks toward the reactor.

"Am I missing something here?" Cid asked.

"Barret is blamed for the state that Corel is in now." Vincent started. Cid soon got the full story about Barret and how Shinra had essentially ruined another life. To him it was the same old story almost everyone in the group had. A normal life before Shinra came into the picture and altered it to the worst possible situation.

"We're almost there. I think I see guards though." Barret announced. The three of them slowly walked up a cliff until they could clearly see the entrance to the reactor.

"Two MPs, nothing we can't handle with a little gun play." Cid said. He looked at Vincent expectantly. The man blinked before he pulled out his weapon. A Sniper CR, a very powerful weapon but rare to see these days. Cid thought about asking where Vincent got his.

The cloaked man took aim before taking a well placed shot at one of the guards. The man fell like a sack of rocks when the shot passed right through his head. Before the other could even think about calling for backup he met with the same fate.

"Clear." Vincent said.

"Scoped and dropped. Now let's get that materia." The three man team sprinted to the reactor opening, all prepping their weapons for a confrontation. However the entire area was eerily quiet.

"I guess we're safe for now." Cid said. But when the words left his mouth a very loud whistle had sounded. Barret jumped while Vincent's eyes widened. All three jumped back as the train almost barreled past them. The loud engine drowning out sound as it passed before it was far enough for the team to hear themselves.

"Damn. It looks like they are taking it away by train."

"NO! You damn boneheads!" Barret yelled at the retreating image of a train.

"...Go after them?" Vincent asked, very confused. Cid shook his head before he remembered Nate saying something about driving a train to catch up. He felt his confidence begin to swell again.

"Hey, do you know who I am? I'm Cid, that's who the hell I am. Now let me handle this." He declared before running into the reactor. Looking around he saw multiple carts ready for transportation. He also saw one train ready to be deployed.

"I'll have to thank that kid." He mumbled to himself. He got on the train and looked at all of the controls only finding a few knobs, two levers, and a few small ones.

"Now how do I start this thing?" He scratched his chin. Winging it he flipped a few levers. The sudden sound of a hiss filled his ears as the train slowly lurched forward and gain speed.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey" He called. The train passed the opening as both Vincent and Barret jumped on as the train started going faster. Both came up front with Barret looking very confused.

"How can they even drive this?"

"Don't ask me, I don't know." Cid didn't think this was simple at all. Nate must have lost something in translation because the train had too many things for one person to work on.

"What?" Well it had levers, Cid could deal with those.

"Don't worry. I can handle this kind of stuff... okay so one lever on my left, and another for my right." Cid experimented and alternated the two levers for a second. He noticed the train started gaining speed again.

"I see, just alternate the two levers up and down. Right?" That actually is simple.

"Judging by the enemies speed we'll arrive in about..."

"Ten minutes." Vincent finished for him. Cid nodded.

"Come on, we're going to fly. Hang on tight!" Cid started alternating the levers at a faster pace. Although theirs had taken a different track Cid could see the carrier train in the distance. He worked his arms harder to catch up to the other one.

"There it is. Keep doin that!" Barret yelled.

"I'm trying" Cid grunted. The levers were getting harder to push and pull as the train gained more and more speed.

"We're almost there!"

"Quite yellin!" Cid yelled out. He put more of his energy into pushing and pulling until he was finally aligned somewhat with the other train.

"Alright. We're going to jump!"

"What?" Barret yelled, looking over at the large gap between them and the other train.

"We can make it, I'm sure." Cid assured.

"But what if we miss?"

"Then we're going to be splatters, but we need to get that Huge materia. So on the count of three we're going to jump. We got the higher ground so we're good." Barret still didn't look convinced.

"One" Cid readied himself.

"Two." He saw movement.

"Three." Vincent had grabbed Barret and jumped with him as Cid went by himself. All three landed roughly on the last cart.

"Don't ever do that again! I almost died!" He yelled at the ever stoic man.

"Whatever, we don't have time!" Cid turned to climb the cart's ladder but a security robot was in their way.

"A Gasductor here? Damn we have the worst luck." Cid said. Just as he finished a few bolts of lightning shot towards the machine and overloaded the mech as it fizzled out. Cid looked back at Vincent.

"Nathan allowed me to borrow his materia. He said it would help." Cid nodded as he climbed the ladder and jumped to the next cart. When he landed inside he found two of the same machine now.

"Darkness, I could use your help here." Instead Barret landed in front of him and started spraying bullets at the machines. They made decent dents but the machines held together as they both charged at the men. Cid blocked one of the machine's attacks with his spear as Barret dodges the other. Vincent finally came in and launched a bolt spell at one while Barret emptied a clip into the other.

All three prepared their next jumps before hitting the next cart at the same time. But now it had a large machine with an equally large blade.

"Aw shit." Cid said before he dodged a slash from the giant. He jumped and speared its shoulder but the creature barely registered the pain as it tried to grab a hold of the man before he jumped off.

"I need a distraction here." Cid called out. Sure enough Barret had his gun loaded, but with about five more clips than normal.

"Time to test this out!" Barret started firing nonstop at the machine. Cid was able to get off as it kept getting pelted over and over with bullets. Finally Barret's gun had stopped along with looking like it was about to burst from overheating. But it did its job as the machine stopped moving and fell over.

"What the hell was that?"

"That was the Ungarmax feature. Like a heavy machine gun on the fly. But it overheats my gun too fast. Damn I need a new one!" Barret bragged.

"Get it later. We're almost to the front." Cid said.

"We have another problem on our hands." Vincent said. Cid looked above the cart to see a giant metallic bird glaring at them.

"I fucking hate being leader. I don't remember the chocobo having to deal with this." He mumbled before the machine cawed and aimed one of its wing guns at the group.

"Get out the way!" Barret yelled. But the confined space made it so the bullets ricocheted around the cart when it hit causing the men to panic.

"We need to bring that bird down. Vincent we need your lightning." Barret said. Vincent nodded before shooting bolts at the machine, causing it to fall into the cart. Barret took a few shots at the head but the machine was back up and started firing at him.

"I should use materia more." Cid mumbled. But he got an idea as he pulled out his lighter. From his pocket he also picked out a stick of dynamite and lit it.

"What the hell are you doing?" Barret yelled. Cid stayed in cover as the wick burned closer to the stick. The machine paid no mind and kept firing at all three men.

"Just a little more." Right before the wick was out Cid threw it into the air. The explosion rocked the cart some but the brunt of the force was taken by the bird; its body hit the tracks before falling down the cliffs.

"Let's hurry!" Cid didn't know how long it had been. But the battles ate up their time. He climbed the ladder to see a single MP operating the train. The MP turned around.

"What the! You guys!"

"All right. Hand over the Huge materia." The MP seemed to debate what to do before he reached for his gun. Not giving the man a chance Cid took his spear and slammed it into the side of the man's head, knocking him off of the train.

"Couldn't make it easy... Still, you got guts coming after me. I'll never forget you."

"We don't have time for that! Stop this now!"

"Hit the brakes, chief" Both Barret and Vincent said.

"I know already! Just shut up and keep quiet. If we keep this up we'll crash into North Corel!" Cid jumped down and grabbed the levers.

"Nate said alternating. So if alternating is accelerating, then breaking is using them at the same time." He pushed both levers up.

Nothing happened. The train moved exactly the same speed as before.

"Hey! It's not working!"

"Isn't it the other way?"

"Fuck the other way! Hold on a second!" Cid pushed both levers down. Suddenly the train had gained speed in an instant and started flying down the tracks. Cid was frantic now; he pushed the breaks back up, now seeing Corel appear in the distance. Barret and Vincent were both yelling into his ears.

"Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, SHIT, SHIT!" He chanted as he pushed the levers up and down constantly until he left them down. Suddenly the train slowed down immensely before coming to a stop right next to the village.

"Damn... We did it."

"That was too close even for me."

"Fuck this leader shit. I need a smoke."


	40. Chapter 40

to long didn't read; I'm sorry it took so long, I had stuff, I can't garuntee weekly chapters. i am still going to upload.

A/N GOD A WHOLE MONTH! I can't believe it took me that long to upload the chapter. But this month has been rough on me as well everyone. Near the beginning i had a death in my family and the person was very close to me. I tried bouncing back but I also had to move to a new location with very little internet access and i didn't even have a computer to continue this without internet until I found the local library.

The last four days I went to a family reunion that had people I have never seen and went to see my enrollment counselor at my college and finally found out what I need to choose for classes, refill out my FASFA, and fill out the lease for my dorm. I have had one hell of a month guys and unfortunately i can't say my updates will get all that better since i have less acess, less time, and college is right around the corner. I just hope you guys can keep patient between chapters for me.

so her it is, Stranger from the sky chapter 40

* * *

><p>"Keep weight off your arm and it will heal in a few days. You're perfectly fine otherwise." I thanked the airship's medic and left. Once again I was happy finding a decent doctor in Gaia. I had somewhat of a biased opinion since the only two scientists that had any focus in the game both were maniacal and the catalysts for the destruction happening now. Good to know not all of them have mental problems.<p>

I had gotten anxious as time passed more and more. I didn't know whether Cid would be able to stop the train or not. I did give him all of the necessary details. But then again I should have more faith in the guy. He was picked for some reason or another to be the team leader.

"Hey Nate!" I looked back to see Yuffie running up to me. "They're back; everyone else is in the operation room right now. We're waiting." I nodded and followed her back towards the operations room. Inside I saw everyone including Barret, Vince, and a very irate looking Cid. Immediately I panicked.

"Did the train crash?"

"Nope." Suddenly I felt all of the air inside my lungs force itself out as I fell down from Cid's hit.

"You said it would be easy. I fucking went crazy trying to force those levers and I came this close from turning into paste. We're even now." He folded his arms and looked down at me. I couldn't form any words and just used him as a wall to get back up.

"...Okay I deserved that." I did make it sound too easy. I shouldn't downplay something as serious as the possibility of a destroyed village.

"But we saved the day I guess, we got an Ultima materia and that huge one too." Looking past the gruff man I saw one of the huge materia. It was the blue one that gave the group the Bahamut Zero materia. Kind of odd considering it was a summoning materia. Maybe color didn't matter when you have over 300 times the power of a regular materia.

"It's so cool." I saw a glint in Yuffie's eye when she looked at the huge materia. I really couldn't blame her. The Huge materia was radiating something from it, I don't know if it was magic or what, but it had a presence to it.

"I had to help the big guy carry it, fuckers heavy as shit. But the brutes a hero now so I guess everything's good." I looked over to Barret who didn't give me full eye contact and tried to focus on the Huge materia.

"Good, then we have time for the next hit."

"Fort Condor," Vincent stated, I nodded.

"Kunsel said we had a few days to get there. I say we fuel up and stay a night near Corel. And in the morning we go to Fort Condor and help the troops prepare."

"Troops?" Cid asked.

"Shinra is going to storm the fort in order to get the other Huge materia inside the bird's nest. They would send MP's, some monsters, and a Grand Horn in the end to take down everyone.

"A Grand Horn?" Cait sounded surprised. "Those things are too dangerous; they give even SOLDIERs a run for their money."

"Well Kunsel also said we had a few of those too. Shinra is getting serious and is even sending a few SOLDIER squads to the place." Everyone was wide eyed at that.

"How are we going to be able to stop groups of SOLDIERs?" Yuffie asked.

"It does seem like a challenge to think about fighting SOLDIER head on" Nanaki added.

"Then take it as one. Guys, we're eventually going to fight the biggest and baddest member of Shinra. If each of us can't take on at least one SOLDIER head on that's even second class we can forget about even attempting to strike Sephiroth. I was able to beat three because they were disorganized, they underestimated me, and the bad ones were arrogant. I don't believe we'll be facing Firsts, but it would help in telling how far we came along." I had faith in everyone, but if no one could take on at least a second class by themselves or with one teammate then I was sure they couldn't help fight off Sephiroth.

"Wait, that means we're going on the front lines?" Cid asked.

"I don't want the people from Fort Condor dying. I think most of the people they have fight for them are mercenaries, but a few of the residents are thrown into the fray as well." Everyone looked serious at the possibility of taking on multiple troops as well as monsters. I understood though, none of us had really been in an all out battle with multiple monsters and MPs, just small squads or packs that would attack here and there.

"Alright then, everybody rest up. Tomorrow we're all going to Fort Condor," Cid announced.

"But I want to hit up a few places first."

"Great, now what?"

"Cid this is going to help us. Could you get me a map of Gaia?" Cid grumbled but walked over to another side of the table before pulling out a map from underneath.

"Where are we going?" Cait asked.

"I know where a few materia are that are going to be useful in the future." I unrolled the paper. I was pleased to see it was exactly like the minimap from the game expect for the few unmarked islands I knew would be useful in the future.

"Since we only have tomorrow to do this we can't get the best one, but we can get the ones here, here, and here." I pointed to the location of three materia caves. Cid took a look at the map before he took a hit from his smoke.

"Alright, tomorrow we'll get the extra materia. If he says is worth it, then it's worth it." I would have thought he would have argued about there not being any grassland to land on.

"Alright meeting adjourned, everyone get back to what you were doing." Everyone had filed out of the room.

"Yo Nate." Looking around I saw Barret standing by one of the walls.

"What?"

"I wanted to say thanks. If you didn't give us any hints Corel might have... just thanks." The big guy walked away before I could get a word in. I shrugged before I walked off. I felt my stomach grumble before I left for the airship's mess hall. Thinking about it, the Highwind had a lot more rooms than the game made it look like. It had accommodation rooms for over thirty people, as well as a large enough mess hall to hold all of them. In fact, I bet I'm missing a few extra rooms for storage and other stuff.

It was probably a good idea to stay in Corel to get supplies. The chef of the ship was starting to run low on supplies and I didn't want to eat monster again. I still remember the Cockatolis from the first time we were in Corel. It wasn't bad but I don't want to eat something that might have eaten a person at one point in its life again.

"Hey Nate." Yuffie waved me over to a spot she was sitting at, already half done with her food.

"Yo, what you need?" I sat down.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"About...?"

"Well about you." I raised an eyebrow. "Everything you told me about yourself was a lie. I don't hold it against you but now I don't know anything about your past. I want to though."

"Well... I was born in a state called Colorado."

"State?" She asked, I sighed.

"Maybe I should start with a little history. The United States consists of..." So Yuffie and I talked for a good while about Earth. I told her about the multiple factions of government, how it was much bigger than Gaia was, and the similarities from one region to another.

"So you have people like Wutaians on Earth?"

"They take up a larger amount of the population, I believe over fifty percent. Your people are actually based on them."

"Do they speak the same language?" Now she seemed excited.

"Actually that's what confuses the hell out of me with Wutaians. I thought they would adopt one of the dialects from Asia. Yet when I've heard you speak I've heard bits and pieces of at least three different Asian languages. It's kind of like the one civilization that started it all, only in reverse." We eventually moved on to where I was born and what my family was like. I told her about my mom and dad, as well as the multitude of brothers that I had. I told her more about myself including quirks such as my obsession with sweets.

"Is that why I always saw you drinking that cola stuff like the one I gave you?" I nodded.

"It was just like one drink on earth, only more carbonated. It reminded me of home a little."

"A soda reminded you of home?"

"Hey I missed everything when I got here, not just my family and life but all of the small things too. Yuffie, let's say you love multiple brands of chocolates and sweets you've lived with damn near all of your life. Then suddenly you're in a place that has never even heard of any of these brands." She had a thoughtful look.

"That makes sense; I would go crazy if some of the stuff in Wutai I loved didn't exist."

"Well what kind of stuff?" The conversation then shifted to Yuffie. She told me about a few of her favorite dishes from Wutai and eventually shifted to her childhood.

"You left home at nine years old?" She told me after the Wutai war she had decided to leave home.

"I was already the great ninja that I was then, I just thought I needed worldly experience." Okay, I'm calling bullshit before she starts anymore of this.

"You constantly pestered one SOLDIER to investigate caves so you could snatch the materia from him or con money out of him." She seemed to freeze when I mentioned that.

"...How much do you know about everyone again?"

"You are almost exactly like your nine year old self. Only now you have some skill to back up that bravado." I said smugly.

"That's no fun you know stuff about me like that!" She shouted. She had a smile on so I knew she was only kidding.

"Not my fault. It's kind of funny though that you pestered that specific SOLDIER though." She looked confused before I continued. "That was Zack, Aeris's boyfriend as well as Cloud's best friend." Her eyes were almost the size of saucers when I said that.

"Really? That guy got around." She said, sitting down.

"Zack was very prominent before he died. In fact he tried to stop all of this at some point in his life."

"It's just weird how you know so much about each of us. It's stalker-ish."

"Hey reading about you guys is not stalking. It was a decent story, not my fault it got into all of the details."

"It's just weird though; do you know how you even got here?" I shook my head.

"I don't know, one minute I'm enjoying myself and the next I'm lying down in the garbage of Midgar." I stopped thinking about how I got he some time ago, I decided when everything was said and done with I would investigate as much as I could into how I got here... maybe a way to see my family again. But now's not the time, I got bigger problems to work out. Maybe Yuffie could help me with a few of those problems.

"Hey Yuffie, I could use your help on something."

"What?"

"I want you to help me brainstorm ideas to help Cloud get back to normal."

"How am I going to do that?"

"Well you're the youngest of the group besides me, plus you're all conniving and clever so maybe we can come up with an idea together." Yuffie does have a different mindset being younger. Thank god she's childish.

"I... guess I can help. What is it?" I told her about the situation Cloud was in, and how he was supposed to get his original personality back in the Lifestream under Aeris's protection.

"Why can't she do that now?"

"Well because she isn't dead."

"But she's a Cetra, what can she do?"

"Well she can..." I started. But I got to thinking about what she said. I had absolutely no idea how Cetra used their powers. Besides Aeris's limit breaks and how she was able to communicate to Cloud from beyond the grave I knew nothing about the powers of the Cetra. For all I know they were fucking Jedi's and could use their powers and junk.

Yeah, fat chance of that. But thinking about this, maybe Aeris has some power over Mako.

"Yuffie, you're a mad genius!" I reached over the table and hugged her before running off to find Aeris. It didn't take long to find her looking out the bridge window.

"Aeris, I need you for a minute, you're not doing anything right?" Before she could answer I continued.

"Aeris, what can you do?"

"What do you mean?" She looked very confused.

"I mean as a Cetra, what are your abilities?"

"I can speak to the Planet and... and can hear the voices of other dead Cetra in the temple and city."

"Nothing else?"

"What do you mean?"

"Aeris I was thinking about the situation, and I realized that you were very powerful when you died, yet you never fully explored your powers when you were alive. No one, including you, knows the full extent of a Cetra's power."

"So we don't know what I can do to that didn't involve my death?"

"Exactly, maybe if you listened to the Planet more, or tried to communicate to it, you might have abilities you never knew about."

"Then maybe I could still help Tifa and Cloud when they are in the Lifestream," she concluded. I knew Aeris was way smart.

"Yep."

"But how can I figure out my powers?"

"That... I did not think of." My shoulders slumped from the thought.

"It's okay Nathan, you had a good idea." She patted my back and gave me an earnest smile.

"Maybe if you try to talk to the Planet more… If you can do anything for me, try to talk to the Planet as much as possible. If it's just jumbled voices then try to understand them. If you can do that for me Aeris then I would be happy."

"I will try." Say said. I nodded before I left. Now I had some semblance of a plan to keep Cloud and Tifa alive and still have him get his mind back. But I need to make sure everything else is working out. I pulled out my new PHS and called Kunsel. It rang for a few seconds before a somewhat scratchy voice came on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Kunsel, it's me. Has there been any more information on Fort Condor?"

"Not much, but they did set a date for the attack."

"When?"

"Three days from now. They still need to fly in a few more monsters and troops. They're really wanting to go all out to get whatever it is they need." Okay, so two days from tomorrow. We should be able to prepare well enough to counter the attack.

"Thanks for the info... also have you heard anything about a train getting robbed at some point today?" I shrugged.

"Wait, did I hear you right?" Was the staticy response.

"We just took a very important item from Shinra and it was on a train. I just want to know if you heard anything about it."

"You guys held up a train? Man you work fast. I didn't hear anything about a train getting hit though." Perfect.

"Thank you Kunsel, I just needed that information. Call me up when anything new comes up." I hung up. If Kunsel didn't know then I could infer that the Turks didn't know. And if they didn't, Rufus was behind on it too. I bet it would take another day or so before the information circulates, possibly more considering the train had to travel through the mountains. If all went according to plan then Shinra wouldn't know about the first Huge Materia missing until right when we stole the second.

"The day could only be better if I didn't have a piece of crap phone." I really wish Reeve would give me back my stuff. I missed all of my old music and my regular crappy phone. I decided to go practice with Fusion and try to remember a few more attacks from other games to keep my mind off of the subject.

The very next day the Highwind started for North of Corel. The trip didn't take long, about thirty minutes or so before we had found the rocky ground. Everyone was on the bridge waiting to land.

"So where is this special materia?" Yuffie asked me.

"It's in a cave in a mountain, I told Cid to land near it and we can search for it. Hopefully it continues to be easy and the cave isn't hidden."

"Was there a different way to get the materia?" Aeris asked.

"It was actually optional for you guys to get these materia. Depending on your builds they could have been really powerful. But to get them you needed to breed a river crossing Chocobo, then a mountain crossing one, breed those two together, then the biggest one would be an ocean crossing one.

"Those are pretty rare breeds lad. Those would take a few years to make," Cait said. But then again no one accounts for side questing time.

"Alright, take the ladders down and go find your materia. But if you take too long I will leave you here." Cid announced. To be safe most of the team went down and started to explore the area. It was very rocky and uneven to walk on. It was more work to get to the cave than to search for it.

"It's over here!" Barret yelled, some ways away from the group. Walking over we saw the opening in the mountain and walked inside.

The cave was more breathtaking than the mythril mines. The entire inside was a brilliant purple with a single gem glowing in the middle of the entire room.

"Dibs!" Yuffie called.

"And there went my moment. Thank you so much for ruining it Yuffie." She ignored me and walked over to the purple materia and plucked it from its stone pedestal.

"What does that one do?" Nanaki asked

"This materia switches the person's life energy with their own magical energy," I said. Most of the group's eyes bugged out.

"I've never heard of a materia that did that." Cait said.

"How long has that been in this cave?" Aeris asked, looking at the independent type materia.

"I don't know, what does time have to do with it?" I asked.

"Materia gains its powers by condensing Mako over time. The longer it's been condensing, the different powers it has. An ability such as this for a purple materia could take upwards of twenty years." Damn, I never knew that. So how long has the Knights of the Round materia been sitting on that island? It's not even charted so it could have been there for hundreds of years for all I know.

"Do different types take different lengths?" Yuffie asked Nanaki.

"Yes, unique materia like this for magic could take fifty years. A one of a kind summon would take an untold amount of time."

"Well how useful could this thing be?" Barret asked. I decided to explain.

"Barret, take me for example. I have an average amount of endurance and health before I get tired or die from attacks. But I have a crap ton of magic. So if I switched it around..." I let Barret think about it before it clicked.

"You'd have the energy of a damn dragon! But damn weak magic," Barret finished.

"Exactly, now come on. Cid's getting impatient, and we have to head to Wutai." Everyone followed me out of the cave and back onto the Highwind. We had flown for about an hour before we landed on some dead grassland. The cave was visible this time since it was the mountain to the east instead of the west.

This cave was different from the last. The dominant color was yellow. Sandstone seemed to make up the walls while light colored gravel took up most of the floor. A yellow gem was in the middle this time. Cait decided to pick up the materia this time.

"This one is mime. It copies the last thing a person you saw did."

"How useful will that be just to copy someone?" Yuffie asked.

"If someone has a magic materia that is really useful against a monster and no one else does Mime will allow you to copy that magic as long as it was the last thing you saw."

"Quite handy indeed," Cait added.

"Where to next?" Vincent asked.

"We need to go back to one of the islands near Mideel, then we go to Fort Condor." Everyone was back on the airship. The trip would be longer now since we basically had to circle the world to get the next secret materia. So now I would have to wait an extended amount of time before getting off again.

You know, I haven't bothered Vincent in a good long time. He's hanging around somewhere. I just know it.

"Excuse me." I was suddenly bumped into by the man. I took a second to steady myself before I ran after him.

"Hey Vince wait up." The man only stopped for a moment before continuing. I followed the man until we were on the bridge. To conserve fuel Cid was going at a leisurely pace to the next cave. There was a strong breeze but people could stand on the deck.

"What are you doing out here?" I asked. He didn't answer and instead took out one of his pistols and loaded it.

"Practice," He said simply before holding his gun up and looking out into the distance. I gave him an odd look before I heard an odd sort of call out in the distance.

"Let me guess, that's the target?" He nodded. I bent over the railing and saw one of the giant owl-looking monsters flying below.

"I asked Cid to fly low enough for me to practice," He said, aiming his pistol and firing. The shot rang out and the monster fell to the ground.

"Why would you need to practice? You wake up after thirty years and you could most likely shoot a fly's wings off. I don't see the reason why you need to practice."

"Even I have to keep my skills up to par, much like the rest of the team. Now, why are you here?" He said, looking around for another target.

"I realized I don't talk to you to much besides the occasional chat, so I thought I could rectify that."

"There isn't anything that needs to be said."

"Now Vincent come on, I know I pulled a dick move back at Mideel but cut me some slack. I'm preparing everyone for when we fight the harder monsters. Plus I think it was good, I got to see that stone cold facade crumble for just a few seconds." He didn't respond so I continued talking.

"Come on, tell me about yourself."

"You already know about me."

"No, I know you were a Turk and were locked up. What were you like growing up? What were your parents like?" Again no response. I huffed and leaned my head into my hand. For a full twenty minutes I sat on the deck as Vincent would take random shots out of the airship.

"You won't leave will you?" He finally said.

"I could pull a Yuffie and keep talking. But we both know you don't want that. Now come on, at least give me something." He took a few more shots before he started reloading his gun.

"I don't remember much of my life. Hojo's experiments took them away from me." He finished before looking over the edge again.

"I grew up in Midgar... I believe my father was a weapons merchant and my mother... was Wutaian." His voice sounded strained as he searched through his memories.

"We lived an average life. I was quiet, obedient; I did everything my parents said. My mother was soft spoken; my father was a fast talker."

"What were their names?" His eyes narrowed before he stopped looking over the edge. Practice was over now.

"I don't remember." He stated. He looked at his pistol. "I do remember the first time I shot a gun. I hit the center of my target on the first try. I think my father tried to teach me to get even better. A few years later I was scouted by Shinra."

"That's when you started working for them?" He shook his head.

"I was put through the military academy. I was a weapons specialist. I was proficient with all of them. It wasn't until I was twenty three that I was formally inducted into the Turks. It was new then; we were still called the Department of Administrative Research. All Turks worked in pairs, my partner's name was Verdot, the leader at the time." I thought about his partner. It was the same guy from the Before Crisis game, I wonder where he's at now, I know the other Turks from that game are in hiding.

"At the time we were named for our weapons specialty's. I was called Sniper considering i had set new records for marksmenship in the academy, Verdot as the leader didn't need a name, though he was also known as Veld. I rose through the ranks quickly, having almost as much pull as Verdot himself. But I was given that one mission to protect samples for doctor Hojo." His voice grew colder at the name.

"Tell me something. Why don't you use materia besides the deathblow I gave you?" I quickly changed the subject.

"When I joined Shinra materia were used sparingly. I was one of the few that chose not to rely on them."

"What about a PHS, I don't see you with one of those."

"I don't care for one; if you need to find me I will let you." Man, Vincent doesn't like new things. I don't see him using anything besides his guns.

"Why don't you answer one of my questions now." He said.

"I'm listening."

"How far along is your world without the help of materia? Is it less advanced, or more?" He sounded genuinely curious. I thought about the materia and magic situation compared to Earth.

"I think more. We don't have monster problems so we have spread across our world more. We were able to send satalights into space so we could have better phone technology and world wide access to information, we were even able to send several people to our own moon. And even without magic we still made some devastating weapons. I'd say our atomic bomb would rival quite a few summons." He raised an eyebrow.

"What is an atomic bomb?"

"To put it simply, it's a bomb that uses nuclear fission or fusion and has enough power to vaporize an entire town, including its people. It literally doesn't leave a trace of anything after the explosion."

"...Then your world must have more powerful things than monsters to fight." He deducted.

"No, the only thing we have been fighting is ourselves. The only notable war in this world was the Wutaian War, we have had countless ones."

"Was your world ever threatened like ours?"

"Nope, we've never come this close to having our world end. We don't have any scientists with the capacity to take over Earth. The way we're designed almost makes it so no one has even a chance at trying to take over the world. In fact it's illegal to have a monopoly on Earth, something Shinra has quite a few of." Vincent nodded before he went to the door.

"It seems both of our worlds could learn a lesson from the other," He said before exiting.

"I guess so." I mumbled to myself.

Later we were off of the Highwind again. This time on a small island just north of the one Medeel was on. Inside the cave it actually seemed the most normal. It had jiggered brown colored rocks and a bunch of sand on the ground since it was right next to the beach.

"Now this is more up my or Aeris' alley." I plucked the blue materia. "This is Quadra magic. When paired with a magic materia it casts that spell four times in a row. Good for quick succession, yeah?"

"I think you should give that to Aeris, you have more than enough materia as is." Nanaki said.

"Well what's one more going to hurt?"

"Nathan you do know why we only have one armlet to use materia? When you equip them they increase certain attributes and decrease others." I thought that was just a part of the game... then if that's true…

"I'm fighting at half strength most of the time aren't I?" I realized. I had overbalanced myself with magic materia that reduced strength and defence but inturn increase my magic strength and defences.

"It's okay Nathan, not everyone knows how to properly balance materia. It takes time." Aeris assured. I gave her the support materia and walked out of the cave.

"We burned out most of the day everyone. We need to get to Fort Condor fast. Let's go!" Cid yelled out.


	41. Chapter 41

A/N A summary of my four months of absence.

got new shit computer, got into college, was confused as hell, financial aid was screwed up for the next three, college was moe chill than I thought, all classes are pretty okay besides english, had to write 8 page paper, got stumped so i finished his intstead. aid is still screwed up now, so happy o be back.

That out he way I guess its only oppropriat that with my absence we missed the 1 year annaversery of my first fic, so i guess party popes to that. And so evryone knows, weekly updats will be back up. I only have a few weeks of class left before winter break and I have kept on my material pretty well. So next saturday another chapter will be up. But before you reread the entire fic to reaquaint yourself with it i also announce i have had some headway on redoing the chapters that my good beta reader Saria19 (who even beta'd this without a fuss after 4 months of no contact) didn't revise because she was just a reviewer like the rest of you guys. Those will also be updated next week.

and there will be a poll up to finalize who cloud will end up with at the end of this fic since i could never decide and I meant to do this months ago. each voter has one vote, make it count.

ladies and gents, Ace is back with a 10,000 ord chapter in hopes to ake up for everything, so here is...

* * *

><p>Ch 41<p>

I sighed as I finished organizing my materia decently which was a little annoying. I didn't have the versatility I once did now. I had my mastered Lightning with my Comet materia on my left with my new Contain, MP Absorb, and Gravity on my right. It irked me to cut down but my set up would cover just about everything without causing harm to our team. Even I didn't think summons like Neo-Bahamut were going to discriminate who they vaporized with its attack in a crowded area. Then again I didn't expect to fight at Fort Condor, but afterwards I should be prepared.

Now my next problem is finding a change of clothes. Fighting in country clothes is going to limit me and I need more protection. Since I can't spend any gil at a town I guess I can only hope someone on here might have something for me.

"Hey Cid, you have any spare clothes on this thing or what? I kinda need a change." I asked. The man looked back at me.

"The hell would I have clothes for your for?"

"Cid, I haven't changed out of these country clothes since I left Mideel and in my own opinion, I don't want to go defending a reactor in jeans and a cheap shirt. Plus you're the closest in height to me that may have more than one set of clothes." I still don't understand how everyone else has stayed with the exact same clothes throughout this whole endeavor, I can barely stand staying in these clothes for a few days and everyone else has stayed in the same ones for a month and a half now.

"I guess there are a few spare MP uniforms from when we stole this back. You might find something your size, but hurry up. We hit Fort Condor in twenty." An MP uniform? Awwwww, I guess I'll take it. I walked off looking for where the MPs would suit up. Lucky for me the Highwind wasn't too big and I was able to find where the soldiers would suit up. I was lucky enough to find one in my size. Putting it on, I actually started to like the uniform. In Crisis Core it actually looked kind of cool. The shoulder pads were cool, I had a flak jacket for extra security, and the cloth was light. All in all the uniform was cool.

When I was done I still had time before we landed.

I decided to talk to Aeris about the Mideel dilemma. It had only been a day but hopefully there was some progress. Last I remember she was on the deck. Cid was going slower while we were over land. I saw the brunette looking down at the ground passing us by. She had a very somber look though.

"This isn't as fun as I thought it was going to be the first time I saw this." She said out loud.

"Didn't you want to ride on the Highwind?" I remember she wanted to be on it and Cloud promised... Ah.

"He'll recover, as long as we get through this he'll be alright," I tried to comfort her.

"Are you sure?" She asked. To be honest I wasn't. Everything I would do had repercussions in some way. I should have realized saving Aeris wouldn't be sunshine and rainbows. Her death had some significance and I just ignored it in favor of not seeing a friend die.

"How's talking to the Planet going?" I changed the subject. It was the number one priority on my mind at the moment, Cloud would come soon enough.

"It's... different from the city or temple. It's like I have to reach out before I get something back, not the other way around."

"Have you been able to hear anything that could help?" She shook her head.

"It's still like trying to listen to conversations in a crowd; I'm not used to it yet." That didn't comfort me as much as I hoped it would. She must have noticed when she continued.

"Don't worry; I'll pick it up soon. Let me worry about it, you worry about your things." I smiled, how she could know how a person was feeling like that was uncanny.

"Now if I let only you worry you're going to try that hero crud again. Aeris, as much as you care for others, if you don't let other people help you when it comes to this kind of stuff." She had a small smile at my words.

"You need to let the rest of the group act like heroes too you know. Everyone else in this group needs to make stupid decisions." I laughed a little while she giggled.

"Like you always wanted?" She asked playfully. I almost forgot I told her about wanting to be a hero. Thinking about it though, I was more comedy relief than anything.

"I'm just a supporting character. Cloud is the main guy here, I mean everyone in the group is important but its Cloud that was the focus because of his past and the connection he has to Sephiroth." Before I could elaborate my PHS went off. Hearing the annoying tone I chose made me groan.

I need to have a talk with Reeve about me getting my phone with all my cool stuff back.

"Something important?" Aeris asked.

"I set an alarm so I could have time to think of new attacks and practice them before we get to Fort Condor." I also wanted to talk to everyone else on the airship so I could maybe get them to experiment with new tricks I couldn't do. But I did groan looking at the brick I had in my hand.

"You look disappointed."

"Hearing this thing and looking at it reminds me a little of home actually. And every time I hear that ring tone I remember I lost my phone and music player." Aeris just smiled while I got grumpier.

"A phone means that much to you?"

"Well I liked my phone. It was durable, had all of my old contacts in it, and pictures. It has so much from my world... really its proof." She raised an eyebrow at the last one.

"Proof of what?"

"That I don't belong here. It has pictures of my family, landscapes that don't exist here, music made by people that were never born here. It is proof of my existence." I would like to see some of my pictures again; it's felt like forever since I'd seen the Rockies or the clear landscapes back home. It was all the small things it contained that made me miss home more.

"You value it that much? I thought you liked being here." I leaned onto the railing, looking at the passing ground beneath.

"Don't get me wrong, I love being here. I dreamt for most of my life of escaping from reality into one that suited me better. I was even able to, but as time passes by I start feeling like this is my world now. There's no game anymore, no levels or quests, its real life. Being here for the last few months has made the last seventeen years of my life seem like a dream... But I still like earth, it had its charm and I became the person I am there. It's the little things like those pictures or the music I had that gave me a small comfort in knowing it wasn't just a dream or fantasy, by being proof of my existence." When I stopped I didn't hear Aeris say anything. She just started looking at the passing ground like I was. For the rest of the way we didn't talk,

"Alright we're right outside of Fort Condor, everyone get your shit and get off my plane!" Cid yelled. I had already gotten my sword, armor, and all of my materia together. Everyone met on the deck and climbed down the ship's ladders. It wasn't long before we got to the back entrance to Fort Condor with the same guard as last time.

"Hey, remember us?" I asked him. He seemed to think before his eyes widened.

"You're the guys that helped us last time." Wow, I would have thought we were forgotten actually.

"Didn't we make only a small donation of gil?" I know we could barely manage over 1000 gil to help them out before.

"Every contribution counts. In fact you guys were the only ones outside the village to donate to us." Wow, I guess we would be remembered then.

"Are you here for the battle coming up?" The guard asked hopefully

"Yeah, we're here to get the Huge materia." Cid butted in.

"Huge... materia?" The man tested the word, oblivious to what we wanted.

"Just let us talk to your boss." I said. The guy nodded and motioned for us to go up the ladder. Everyone went up and most of the group found the familiar surroundings of the village and soon enough the mountain base and the same old looking man apparently napping on the table until we walked up.

"You've come at a good time. Shinra's changing its strategy now. It seems they want to destroy the reactor and take the materia that's inside."

"Man, we can't lose now." Barret said.

"So we have to protect this area too." Cid grumbled.

"Guys we have a few days before Shinra gets here. Let's just help these guys prepare traps and help them hire a few mercs," I said.

"How much money do we even have anyway? We haven't bought a lot of new weapons because we kept finding better ones." Yuffie questioned.

"Yuffie, even after you stole all of our materia, no one took the time to become the team's new item manager, that is your job." I pointed out. Granted that was a valid question. We would buy supplies every now and again but no one really counted their money anymore.

"I have about 10,000 gil," Responded Vincent.

"24,052." Cid said.

"I have over 50,000," Everyone stared at Barret.

"I really wish I didn't fall into the Lifestream now. You'd think traveling the world would have been expensive, not profitable," I said. The group then decided for each person to contribute, giving the old man a grand total of 34,875 gil.

"How many mercs can this hire, it doesn't seem like enough," I said out loud, converting gil to dollar it was only about 13,000. That wasn't a lot by Earth standards.

"We don't hire many mercs, only a couple to help lead. Their prices are often too high. We use it to have our construction workers build traps and buy decent weaponry for our own men," the old man replied.

"Well what can we do?" Barret asked.

"You could help set up some of the traps and if you want, participate in the fight. One of our men will show you around the field so you can get a feel for it. But wander around if you want. You're more than welcome here." The old man nodded toward us before he got up with the bag of gil we gave him.

"So how does this one play out?" Barret asked.

"Honestly, I have no idea. This escalated way more than I thought it would." I would just set up tons of traps and a few soldiers before the monsters came up, and did as much as I could before the Grand Horn showed up. But now we have not only monsters, but MPs and a few SOLDIERs from 3rd to probably 1st class. Without any clear cut fights I couldn't predict how the mini-game would play out.

"So we just sit around here with our thumbs up our asses?" Cid asked.

"Nah, I can only use one arm but I can still help." I walked up to the ladder that led to the battle field.

"Like what?" Yuffie asked.

"I'm going to make an ice wall for these guys. I know shits about to go down, and creativity could save a lot of people right now." I started climbing the ladder with my one arm. Thinking of the different ways I could defend the base from the full military force of Shinra.

* * *

><p>ATE<p>

Rufus groaned, the first of the Huge materia was behind schedule by a few days. He had made orders to his underlings to make sure that the stone would arrive in time to be loaded into Palmer's rocket ahead of schedule. And yet no one could make heads or tails of where it was.

"It's just a delay sir and not even a bad one, you should concentrate more on the cannon's transportation," Scarlet told him. Rufus remembered the other problem that he had, managing the transportation of the Sister Ray. The success of the last WEAPON's death made for him to plan sometime before to get the cannon placed in Midgar. Technically the construction wouldn't be a problem; Midgar had made preparations years ago in case Wutai ever tried to invade from the eastern coast by Kalm. The transportation would be the problem.

Without the Highwind it would take more personnel to get the cannon out. But they had enough men to get the job done within the week at least.

"The Sister Ray is fine, but the fact that a Huge materia is possibly missing is more disturbing. I should have heard something by now."

"Maybe those twits down at Corel got in the way." Scarlet said, more to herself than anyone else but Rufus heard it.

"And why would they get in the way?" He raised a brow.

"Their town is built right on the tracks; the train could have plowed through it for all we know," she explained with a haughty grin. The president of Shinra however was less than amused.

"You didn't tell the town about valuable cargo being transported through?" Scarlet flinched at the cold tone from her boss, but didn't answer.

"You didn't... You do realize that for all we know the train crashed through their homes and made it so they had to transport it by foot, or we lost it in the crash?" His temper was rising.

"Sir, they're just some junk town people living in tents, it didn't concern them what we would have done," she tried to explain.

"And the fact we had to transport valuable cargo meant we didn't have to send men to clear the way?" he growled. Corel may have hated Shinra, but a squad of armed guards was more than enough to keep them in line and clear the path. Scarlet just stood in place.

"Get out of my office; you're just like Heidegger and Palmer." The deadly look in his eyes caused Scarlet to freeze up before she stumbled out the office. Rufus pinched the bridge of his nose with the new information. He knew Scarlet, Heidegger, and Palmer were brash, arrogant, pig headed, and had those annoying sounds they all made. He expected competence from them but even that was in short supply. The only one's he could really trust were the Turks and Reeve.

At least he didn't have to worry about AVALANCHE trying to ruin anything. Reeve had given him his latest report and he was at the very least a little bit pleased. Even though they did steal the Highwind they were looking for Strife, the possibility of him being dead was high, and even if he was alive, the number of Mako fountains in the world he could have washed up on would occupy them long enough for Shinra to destroy Meteor.

Rufus checked some documents. Even if Shinra was short on men he would have to send some from Rocket town to Corel so he could see where the Huge materia had gone. By then the small invading force at Fort Condor should have gotten the other piece. They were already making sure it was safe to get the Huge materia from the Junon's backup underwater reactor, and the one in Rocket town was successfully in place and ready to be launched.

He could only hope their plan would succeed with only a few problems

* * *

><p>"Has everything thing been put into place right?" I looked over the trap.<p>

"Yeah, I did this one right," I answered. I had set up a boulder trap with one arm with only the minimum amount of help. I felt good about the battle now. Everyone else was already prepped and ready for today, we even had a plan of action to see whether we would be ready for Sephiroth or not.

Everyone knew that it would be monsters and attack animals that Shinra would send in first, then MPs, then their SOLDIERS. The traps and ambushes set up would deal with the monsters. When MPs came in, the men in Fort Condor would start fighting. When Soldiers were sent it would be AVALANCHE to take care of them. Cait gave us more details and told us it would only be about nine or so SOLDIERs sent in due to the WEAPONs causing havoc everywhere else which required Shinra to send most of their SOLDIERs out to aid other towns. But considering the circumstances, nine SOLDIERs of varying classes would be the worst. But I wouldn't see any of that action. I would remain in the back, and with a broken arm I could only pick off the occasional flying monster that would get by.

But having made plans earlier with the soldiers and mercenaries I had a few things set up to insure I could help out all over the battle field. I made sure there were lightning rods connected to metal meshes on the ground so when I cast an area spell it would hit something. My firewall idea would be great at the start with the monsters, and having Contain really helped in another idea I set up from the start.

"Has the ice melted at the bottom of the hill yet?" I asked. The mercenary next to me shook his head.

"Still hard as a rock, they'll have to chip through it with fire spells so any men with materia will be weakened from the start." I would have used earth to make a solid wall but Barret had it and I would most likely cause more destruction than good since I can't control earthquakes... yet.

"Then we're ready for them?" I asked anxiously.

"Yup." He pulled up his binoculars. "I can already see them in the town below. Looks like today's the day kid. Start setting up everyone!" The mercenary yelled. I made a light jog to the back end of the battle field. Having familiarized myself with the terrain a little, I could see why Shinra had so much trouble trying to take the reactor.

The only access to Fort Condor that Shinra knew of was through the village below it. The problem for them was that the fort was on higher ground and the men here were resourceful enough to use the elements against the more powerful force. Add the fact Shinra didn't send much more than monsters and MPs due to having issues everywhere else in the world, they could only spend so many resources to try to take down one small contingent.

One of the downfalls to being the only global super power in a world full of monsters attacking everything, terrorists out for your guts, and everyone having the capacity to do magic. Even as small as Gaia was compared to Earth, it was still too much land for one power to have full control over.

I reached the back where I saw the rest of AVALANCHE getting prepped and ready for battle.

"Everything is ready guys; you all should get into your positions." I said.

"Finally, I've been waiting to kick ass," Cid said, his cocky grin showing.

"I'm still a little nervous about this." Aeris said being honest.

"I'm not; it's time to show Shinra that the Great Ninja Yuffie has only gotten stronger since I started traveling!" Yuffie fist pumped.

"I've been wanting to stick it to Shinra again for a long time now," Barret added.

"Hope they don't recognize me," Cait said.

"Hopefully we're strong enough," Nanaki said.

"Hm," Vincent just grunted.

"Alright guys, I'll have to stay back here. I'm rooting for you guys and if you're lucky an attack of mine might help out," I joked.

"Like that will happen. You don't have to do any of the heavy fighting; we have to face at least one SOLDIER each." Barret commented.

"Barret, I do recommend you guys get into groups of two to help each other out. I would help out but getting spit out by the Planet kinda leaves a mark on you." I would have wiggled my arm if it didn't sting. Thank god I can get this off in a few more days; if this was Earth I would have this for months.

"Well if that's it then good luck guys," I finished. Everyone nodded and went further down the hill while I headed back inside the fort to get a better view.

"Are you sure your friends can handle SOLDIERs?" One of the mercenaries that was recently hired asked me.

"We're AVALANCHE, we have extensive experience in fighting Shinra, I think my friends can handle Shinra's best if they stick together."

"For their sake, I hope so." I ignored the man in favor of focusing on the field. I could see practically the whole field. After a few minutes I saw the first set of monsters start to appear. I chuckled a little seeing what looked like two dozen Dark Nations run up to the ice wall I created. It took a few minutes before some of their mechs came and shot down the wall. The mix of trained monsters and machines started funneling through the leftover shards and boulders.

"Now!" the mercenary next to me yelled into his radio. The minute the hounds tried running through the obstacles the first traps were sprung. The mounds of large rocks that were barely held up by some wires suddenly fell on top of the attack dogs. As strong as they were I doubted they could take a few hundred pounds of solid rock, and just as suspected, the ones unfortunate enough to get caught in the traps were crushed. The mechs... not so much. They were designed like the Sweepers around the Midgar area. They were too sturdy for the kind of traps at the start.

"We need gunmen at the front!" I glanced at the mercenary yelling again. Looking back down, I saw the first of the volunteers and hired men getting into their positions. The now more or less dented mechs kept coming up the hill until they were met by the firing line.

"Shoot at the generators, make every bullet count." The minute the command was given all of our men started firing at the nearest mech. The echoing sound of gunshots even reached up to the shed we were at.

"Can they hold the line?" The son of the old man said nervously.

"Maybe, they seem like decent shots. It's the fact reinforcements are coming that I'm worried about," The mercenary commented. Almost on cue I could see a few more mechs and even MPs start to appear. But what I was concerned with was the sudden appearance of some monsters flying directly to the shed.

"They sent in the Wyvern." I took that as my cue to get onto the battlefield. Getting prepped I stood near some metal conductors. Downhill I could see the flying creatures quickly gaining wind and start to charge at the base. I closed my eyes and started to concentrate on my strongest Bolt spell. Above my head I could see the clouds start to swarm to strike down where I aimed. Instead I just let the magic keep building and building as the Wyverns got closer.

"Just shoot them out of the sky like the rest of the men!" I ignored the order; I wanted to wait for the perfect moment to strike. I started to hear their wing beats as the monsters got closer. I could feel the air condense around me as the spell got stronger. Crackles in the sky started to form. Finally I heard the screech of a Wyvern too close for my comfort.

"Thundaga!" In a split second the Wyvern was struck down. The others became alarmed but were soon struck by the ever increasing amount of lighting. I could see down the hill the steel rods catching the electricity, most likely hitting those unfortunate to be standing on the meshes connected. I would have to cast again to make sure the spell continued to get rid of the lucky flying enemies.

My ears perked up when I hear an explosion not caused by my attack, looking down I saw smoke clearing from what looked like a powerful Fire attack.

"They finally sent in the SOLDIERs, I really hope we haven't been under leveling this whole journey."

* * *

><p>Barret was having the time of his life. He was finally doing something on the scale he hoped to against Shinra. He was fighting a full invasion force from Shinra and they were winning!<p>

"Come on, you know you want some more!" He yelled out as he was emptying full clips from his gun arm. He had opted to shoot at the front lines with the rest of the men of Fort Condor and he had been doing a fantastic job keeping away the small looking dragons and MPs. Unloading bullets into bodies was Barret's specialty.

"Hey! They're falling back!" Barret heard a yell from one of the defenders.

"Keep pressing the attack, shove them back more!" A few of the defenders started moving forward, making Barret stop his assault as they continued to push down. He frowned since his fun was basically cut short. He was stuck at that spot just in case anything bad happened and now it seemed like everything was going to be fine.

Suddenly the three men that marched passed him were thrown back by an explosion. Barret covered his face and ducked as a strange blackish fire flew out from the smoke leftover, hitting the rock behind him and another two men to his right. Rising up, he frowned.

The man was in a purple military suit, looking over the destruction he had caused. He quickly looked towards Barret when the smoke completely cleared. An angry look on the part of the face he could see since he was wearing the standard Shinra helmet.

"Just Shinra's luck to have AVALANCHE here, but then again that does mean I could get promoted if I kill one of you guys." He brandished his broad sword. Barret just raised his gun arm.

"You can try punk, but you guys ain't got us yet for a reason!" Barret yelled back, the SOLDIER just scoffed.

"We're not like the MPs you kept running into; we're the cream of the crop. SOLDIERS are the most powerful force Shinra can send after someone." He was apparently done chatting when he lifted his hand and launched a few fireballs at Barret. The large man dived behind one of the large boulders to dodge. Barret started blind firing over his shoulder before looking back to see the SOLDIER gone.

"Damn." Barret cursed. He kept his back to the boulder and started searching. The place was big enough for someone to hide from bullets; he had to find the SOLDIER before...

"Gotcha!" He heard before he felt a sharp sting on his back. He looked before he sent another spray behind himself, but the SOLDIER ran behind another boulder before he could get a clean shot. His back didn't burn, so the bastard just cut him and ran. He was lucky he was able to afford actual flak jackets to wear along with his ripped leather jacket. The Cover materia he got didn't hurt to have either. The swords those SOLDIERs had were made to slash monster hides with ease, the extra armor made it so it only penetrated a little on his back. But that didn't comfort him in the fact that this guy would take pot shots whenever he wished.

"You should know everyone in SOLDIER was informed about every member in AVALANCHE, we know what your moves are, how you guys act separately and as a team. You may have a gun, but you're a brute." Barret focused on the materia in his gun, he was thankful to have his team pick his materia for him. He quickly turned to his right and blocked a broadsword with his gun. He went for a quick gut punch, making the winded SOLDIER jump back.

"I'm a brute, but I got a team to help me out with that" The Sense materia he got from Aeris was very useful. Barret would normally be a gut instinct kind of guy, and the Sense materia gave him a sense of his surroundings that felt natural to him. He didn't have as much magic power as some of his team, but enough planning could make even him find the right matches.

He sent another spray of bullets at the man and was able to clip his arm as he used his sword to block a few bullets and get behind a rock. Barret was about to go after him when a few fireballs were shot at him again. He rolled out of the way and decided to reload instead. Barret did not want to get hit by those flames, the dark tint they had didn't sit well with him and he didn't want to find out how those materia Shinra made personally worked.

"Smart to avoid those, Dark Fira is a very good materia. All the power of burning, poisoning, and silence packed into one orb."

"Just cuz you got three materias in one don't mean your gunna win!" Barret yelled before he smiled and shot the ground at an angle, the blue and green materias in his weapon glowing faintly.

Suddenly the SOLDIER jumped into his view along with a spike coming out of the ground. From what Barret could tell he was surprised. He shot again and this time hit the SOLDIER's leg and shoulder before he tossed fire at him again and Barret moved to another boulder. He was starting to get agitated, the field worked against him. He wouldn't get a clean shot and the SOLDIER would keep up his hit and run tactics. But the same could be said for his opponent since Barret could shoot out spikes of earth to create openings and couldn't charge him with his sword.

Barret would have to conserve though, he couldn't shoot earth bullets left and right. He could only abuse so much of his magic before he would get tired.

Barret hissed when he felt his arm get cut, he turned only to keep strafing to the right when a sword came down on the ground. Barret kicked the SOLDIER back and opted to follow up with a punch from his gun arm. The close quarters wouldn't help him to try to use his gun when his opponent used a sword. The SOLDIER blocked with the blade causing a heavy clang sound of steel.

"I'm surprised you can keep up with a 2nd class. I guess those muscles aren't just for show." Before Barret could retort he was hit in the stomach by a flame shot by the man's spare hand. He sputtered before he stomped and caused a small sinkhole to trip up the 2nd class. Barret aimed down and charge up his Big shot and fired. But the SOLDIER jumped out of the way at the last second and used the dust to disappear.

"Damn it, takes too long to charge." He muttered. He needed something to take out the guy in one go so he could go help out his friends.

Barret's senses tingled before he ran to a different boulder as a few fireballs fell on his old location. Barret was starting to get tired of the field now, the SOLDIER would try to outsmart him if this kept up. But that one hit idea might be something he could work with, one solid Hammerblow could knock down a large monster. He just needed enough magic to increase his strength for the hit and to make sure the SOLDIER couldn't get out of the way.

With a new plan in mind Barret turned and fired a shot at the boulder he was leaning on, he heard a grunt and went to another boulder before he shot at another boulder. Barret sprinted to another opening and shot again. He sprinted to the next available boulder but stopped when a series of flames were in front of him.

"Running won't do you any good. Even as strong as you are, I can still run faster than you." The second class jumped in front of Barret holding his sword high above his head. Barret held up his gun arm to block when the SOLDIER swung and had got his sword to cut into the metal on the side of his gun. He smiled when he let go of his sword and started preparing another dark fire. Barret decided to keep going with his swing even with the added weight of the blade. He focused on his Earth materia and aimed for the SOLDIER.

Again the enhanced opponent jumped out of the way, but when Barret continued his course and connected with the ground it suddenly spiked out all around him as he caused a small crater, braking off the swords hilt from his weapon.

"You really are a brute, aren't you?" Barret heard. It wasn't so much a question but a taunt. But even with his gun jammed with steel he could still pull his off.

"And this brute's gunna knock you on your ass before you blink," He said confidently. The smirk the SOLDIER had was quickly replaced with a deep frown. Barret backed up and reared his arm, leaving himself wide open. The second class took advantage of the opening and cast another set of dark flames at the larger man. The fireballs hit their mark and started burning the top layer of Barrets jacket. But instead of screaming the SOLDIER only heard a grunt.

Barret looked very much in pain, but the heat he was focusing on was the burn of his gun finally getting overloaded. When the SOLDIER saw the gun, he immediately tried to jump away only to hit his back on rock. The SOLDIER's eyes widened when he noticed the crater's jagged spikes and the shot Barret made earlier made a wall around the both of them.

The last thing he saw was a steaming mass of steel smash into his ribcage.

Barret kept putting more force into his Hammerblow. He could already hear and feel the SOLDIER's ribs crack under the pressure. Barret kept pushing though. Suddenly he heard a large crush and opened his eyes.

The SOLDIER's body was now imbedded into the rock wall. Only his hands and legs were sticking out while the rest of him was pushed through making a somewhat human shaped imprint. The shards of his now broken gun and the upper half of the SOLDIER's sword now just heated, bloody chunks spouting out of his body.

Barret slunk down to the ground, taking a few shaky breaths. He was completely ecstatic. He beat a SOLDIER all by himself. Granted only a Second class, one but he won all the same. Barret lifted up his stump of an arm and tried to cheer when he noticed his voice was gone. Suddenly he felt like he wanted to puke too. He pulled out an antidote and a potion to ease his first two ailments so he could get the third fixed so he could gloat. Hopefully the rest of the gang was done and he could get help from Aeris.

"Wonder how everyone else is doin?"

* * *

><p>"Both of you get a hold of yourselves! Use your brains instead of your muscle, we don't need reinforcements!" Yelled the Second class. He, as well as two Thirds, were currently ducking behind an old boulder trap used on some monsters they set free before. The Thirds were running their mouths after their last confrontation.<p>

"But sir! There was nothing saying they had the funding to be well equipped, or that they had AVALANCHE as support!" one yelled.

"And those two were just the animals on their team, what about the rest of them? Like the ex-SOLDIER?!" The other added.

"That Wutaian kept helping them too, I even walked past her when I tried to attack that mog and I didn't know. She was behind a sheet that looked like the rock. A SHEET!"

"Both of you will calm down or I'll make sure the science wing has their way with you! Now as organized they are we are still an oiled machine as a squad. Now move out and stay close to the boulders." All three men pulled out their respective broadswords and started walking up the hill.

"HELLO!" Suddenly all three SOLDIER's ear drums were bombarded with a loud piercing yell. Both Thirds were taken back but the Second steeled himself to see the large mog on top of one of the boulders to his right. But the patter of paws running up on his left was becoming the closer threat so he turned to see the escaped lab experiment surrounded by a red shield as it charged. He went for a low swipe when the thing hopped over him and instead attacked one of his subordinates.

The guy was hit by the red energy and was knocked against a boulder when the other threw a fireball at the beast. The spell luckily hit and scorched it a bit before it ran away. The Second recognized that the group was taking pot shots at them so they wouldn't have to face the three directly. As a group, SOLDIER's were a force to be reckoned with, but even he knew they would be hard pressed one on one with a member of AVALANCHE.

Out the corner of his eye he saw the ninja from before run around them.

"Behind us!" The simple yell caused both Thirds to shoot lighting and ice right as the Wutaian passed by them. The attacks collided and the ninja jumped away. However the SOLDIER smiled as he raised his hand and focused on his materia.

"Energy pulse!" Out from his palm flew orbs of pure magic. The orbs followed the airborne girl before she screamed as one hit her in the stomach. Her momentum carried her behind a boulder. The rest followed her behind it when and they all exploded from contact. He was sure of the first hit; worst case she would be weakened, best is she died. He held his breath on the last thought, being optimistic and careless would only cause him more problems.

"Back in formation." The two others made their usual triangle. He knew he still had problems with the animals. But when the group started to move they saw several red boxes about the size of his head were rolled onto the ground. In fact they looked like... dice?

"Giant dice? What are they trying to pull?" his squad mate asked.

"YAHTZEE!" Another microphone attack struck the three. All of them were prepared and had made sure to tune out the frequency with their helmets. But what caught the leader by surprise was the sudden explosion of the dice in front of their group. Each of a varying degree causing debris and even a different die to fly up, making either a smaller or larger explosion. All three were knocked back by the attack. The two Thirds impacted the ground or a boulder while the leader was able to catch his ground. Being slightly disorientated he tried to find the rest of his team.

"Looks like this lad isn't getting up from that one." In his blurry vision and past the ringing in his ear he saw the large Mog inspecting the Third that hit the boulder right next to the experiment. He felt a familiar surge of magic run through his veins when he held out his hand.

"Electrocute." The bolt of lightning he let out was small. But the purpose of this materia was to chain shock a group of enemies. His comrade was already dead, using his body as a conduit wouldn't matter much.

The bolt shot for his old teammate and then sprung out a web of bolts hitting the two terrorists. Both were surprised which was enough for the SOLDIER to capitalize on. He sprung into action and went for the beast first. He swung down only to have the dog-looking thing jump to the other side of his ally. However the magic attack still affected the two so he shoved the mog to the ground and took another slash at the beast.

A clang rang as the SOLDIER tried to force his sword, but it stayed. Inside the mouth of the beast was the broadsword that his squad mate had dropped when he was thrown back. It was strong enough to keep him at bay.

"Smarter than the average monster too," He mumbled.

"Don't mistake me for some common monster." The experiment suddenly spoke with the handle in its mouth. The SOLDIER was no doubt surprised but he kept his cool and jumped back when the experiment twisted its head and took a swing at him. It was slow so he wouldn't have to worry about having a sword fight with the thing. But when he went to knock the weapon away to take another strike, something impacted the ground in front of him. A very large amount of white smoke encompassed him as well as the surrounding area. The leader growled before he put a cloth mask on, the ninja was still alive after all. The explosions were to make sure his group couldn't check and get an extra jump on them.

"Sir, what's going on?" He heard from his right. The Third must have woken up finally. He quickly moved to the sounds origin and made the man duck. He made a few hand signs on the man's chest before he heard a grunt. The leader had already formed a plan and told it to the Third in silence.

He knew that the three would try to take another one of them out while they were disoriented and trying to escape the smoke. But he would have the Third cause a distraction so he could draw at least one out to be hit by the Second class. Afterwards the two would stick together and wear down the other two since the three of them were hit in some way or another. He made a couple more hand signs moved silently away. His most powerful spell being charged.

"I see one!" the Third yelled out before he unleashed a random Ice spell. The Second class changed his helmet's input. He couldn't focus much on anything but sound so he changed his visor's input to display where sound waves were originating. Not a second later he heard what was supposed to be a high pitched siren and saw the source aimed at the Third who had moved away.

"Hell Firaga!" The deadly black and red flames blew up on his target. There wasn't any sound of screaming but the body made a big enough impact for him to pick up. He moved to inspect the body as the Third kept an eye out in the clearing fog. He looked at the large amount of charred parts of the body. One opening showed that the mog was nothing more than a machine. The SOLDIER was taken aback that a machine was causing problems for SOLDIER along with a group of terrorists.

"We have to... cough... keep an eye out... cough." The Second looked at his subordinate and saw the man looking slightly pale under his helmet. The smoke must have been poisoned then. Before he could give the man an antidote he felt two sharp objects stab him in the back. He turned to see the ninja throw her large star at him when he quickly lay down to avoid the spinning blades. The star flew by and started curving upward and back to the girl. He stood and ran at her when she pulled smaller stars and threw them at the SOLDIER.

He dodged to the side only to realize he was right in the large stars path and was cut on his side when he tried to correct himself. He glanced at his last man and saw he was having a coughing fit and was having a hard time moving. In that second he was kicked in the stomach and fell to the ground. Falling flat on his back he lost grip of his sword and tried to get it back only to have his arm bitten by the experiment with a... cat on his head?

"Looks like you're done for. Your friends succumb to the poison and you're pinned down laddie." The cat spoke. In the last few seconds before the large ninja star impaled him he hoped that the First class commander would take AVALANCHE out.

* * *

><p>Aeris made an ice shard appeared right in front of her, but it wasn't meant to attack, it was meant to stave off the lightning bolt coming at her. She ran away again, her breath already shallow from sprinting before. Aeris didn't think that she would have to fight so hard in her life. She had been casting healing magic to help the mercenaries and Cid who had tagged along with her. When the battle started winding down she had taken a few ethers and kept at her job.<p>

Then the mercenaries started to panic with screaming in the distance. Cid told her to stay put and he ran ahead to see what was going on. She ran in thinking she could help heal and possibly cast some offensive magic to aid them. But getting to the scuffle she was suddenly confronted by one of the SOLDIERs charging in and trying to wipe out the crowd swiftly. Aeris had cast some ice magic to stop him but his quick reflexes got him away from being impaled. He had looked in her direction and focused on her ever since.

She was taking another breather now. She didn't worry too much about Cid, he could handle himself in a fight with a Third class, she was confident in him. But she knew she couldn't go against even her SOLDIER physically, and even if she had a mastered Ice with Enemy Skill magic with her, he was faster. The only way she could win would be to fight smart. She had one of the largest pools of magic power out of the group so she could use that to her advantage. She still had Enemy Skill materia so she had a variety of attacks to work with.

"Hey, where did you run?! I thought AVALANCHE was going to put up a fight!"

She just needed time to think how to get away from the guy. She was sure if she was careful she could win. Judging by the light blue uniform, he was only a Third class. She could work with that.

"Found you!" Aeris eyes widened before she ducked, a broadsword cutting the air where her head had been. She turned and took a breath before breathing out a stream of fire. The SOLDIER jumped back but was still caught by some of the flames. Aeris didn't feel relief though, the flame settled on his armor before it suddenly started to vanish into his cloth.

"You would think you'd stop casting magic after you tried to impale me with that ice shard." He remarked before he made another slash at Aeris. She guarded with her Great Gospel which held up remarkably well against the SOLDIER's combined broadsword and strength. But she couldn't hold up against him for long. Aeris then kicked the SOLDIER, knocking him off balance, and started running again.

She couldn't keep this up forever. She would get tired and then trapped by the man. Aeris paused and took time to catch her breath and start casting on herself. At least with Mighty Guard she could dull some of the damage dealt to her person and regen could keep her alive just enough to think of a plan.

Suddenly something crashed near her and made Aeris jump before she raised her staff offensively towards the object that created the dust cloud right next to her. A figure slowly stood up inside the cloud and seemed to look in her direction before it started walking towards her.

"You're having trouble as well?" A very familiar voice said to her. She lowered her weapon when the figures waving red cloak started to show through the dust. Aeris couldn't help but to smile.

"A little, but I could use some help Vincent." Aeris said, relieved and overjoyed she ran into someone that wasn't threatening... well at least not to her anyway.

"Cast Mighty Guard and Haste on me. I'll take on my target and try to help you out while you support with magic." He planned. Aeris nodded before she started casting the mentioned spells. She threw in another before a different SOLDIER landed across from them.

This one didn't have the same helmet her's did. He had feathery black hair and brown eyes along with a scar on his chin. He wore a black uniform and held in one of his hands a dual blade. He looked at Aeris and Vincent with a calculating glare. He must have been the leader of the attacking squad.

"You're making this far more troublesome than this should be AVALANCHE. Our target is the reactor, if you run now you might get away while we are trying to get our objective." He said in a gruff disgruntled tone.

Vincent responded by pulling out one of his pistols and started firing at him. The First class started spinning his dual blades and knocking bullets away from him. Aeris took the initiative to cast Matra magic while the man was distracted however when the missiles were about to hit they exploded prematurely. Black smoke covered the man up before Vincent covered her with his cloak and jumped. A split second later the dual blade had crushed the ground where she stood. Vincent dropped them both and reloaded before he started firing again.

"That 3rd is going to cause us problems if he keeps helping." The First class SOLDIER had hidden himself behind a boulder looking over his shoulder as Vincent shot while the Third was hidden on the opposite side trying to shoot lightening at Aeris and Vincent.

"Does he have any other magic besides that?" Vincent asked, Aeris thought for a second.

"He has fire and I saw him use ice once. He might have more but all he casts are level two spells. But he absorbs any spell I throw at him." Aeris heard Vincent murmur something about the materia being "manufactured" before he stopped firing and switched to a shotgun he had strapped to his back. He aimed before a yellow materia he had attached to it started to glow.

"I'll try to keep them separated. You move when I move and shoot non-elemental spells when you can." Before she could respond Vincent shot the Deathblow charged shotgun and obliterated the boulder standing between him and the SOLDIERs. The dirt pile left behind didn't have any bodies in it, but a small trail of blood was near the ground on the Third class's side.

Aeris focused on the trail and saw the Third try to attack her. She spun her staff to knock the sword away as she chanted another spell. The Third smiled when he was about to launch a fire ball at her when he suddenly found himself surrounded by a sphere of water. Aeris then saw the Third struggle to absorb the spell like the rest of her attacks. He attempted to attack her still when he shoved his sword holding arm out of the water and stab at her, but she quickly started channeling an ice spell. Soon enough the sphere started to change into a snow globe with the SOLDIER struggling to breathe inside. He was stuck in place as he was completely iced over when Aeris fell down from exhaustion. She stood shaking as she took out an Elixir and drank its contents. Looking at the frozen man now, she saw the odd looking bracelet that he had on, in fact it glowed like a ribbon reacting to spells. Before she could think any more she heard more shots being fired not too far away. She would come back later; she still had to help Vincent after all.

She started jogging to see where there was fighting when she noticed Vincent's crimson cloak blow in the wind as he jumped and fired his gun at the SOLDIER keeping up with him. Aeris ran to get as close as she could to her teammate before she was knocked back by a large fire spell. She got up with some trouble since her dress had singe marks all over it. The First class was throwing magic at Vincent left and right while deflecting his shots. Vincent had almost his whole arsenal with him but long range was all he worked with.

As if to prove her wrong, Vincent stopped shooting his assailant for a short time and moved in close. Taking the SOLDIER by surprise, he kicked the man. The force was enough to knock the man far enough away to give Vincent some breathing room. Aeris ran up and looked him over. He had a few cuts but he was healing already.

"I can't get any clean hits in. He's faster than me and I can't fight him hand to hand with his sword." He stated. Aeris thought for a second, the man was tough and Vincent needed an extra boost to take him out.

"Why don't you transform?" She asked. He simply shook his head.

"I don't have the energy anymore; I was saving myself for when it was just me and him on the field. But he's taken too much out of me." He said. Aeris' thoughts raced for a second before she took a step back and began chanting. Vincent looked at her when magic started affecting the air. He saw a reddish sphere seem to take shape around him before he started feeling invigorated. Soon Aeris looked winded, but Vincent felt better than when he started the battle.

"Change into something with power; I'll handle all of the magic," She said. Vincent nodded before the familiar miasma started to surround him as he morphed. Aeris took a step back to give him room. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the man get back up and grab his weapon and charge at Vincent. Aeris channeled her magic and let loose her Matra Magic spell. The SOLDIER jumped to the side and avoided the missiles. But he braced himself at the last second when a spear was chucked at him. He spun his weapon but Cid came in and knocked the man away. Aeris was relieved but also mortified at the sight of the man. Cid had most of his clothes torn and charred. He barely had anything covering his torso, and his goggles were cracked. Apparently his fight had gone just as bad as her's before he won.

"God damn monsters and Shinra, how do you like getting dropped on?" The SOLDIER didn't have a response as a large grey skinned man threw a punch at him. Vincent had fully changed into his Death Gigas and was ready for action.

Gigas took its other fist and swung down when the SOLDIER deflected it with the handle of his weapon and tried to move out of the way. Cid took a stab at the man and he retaliated by punching Cid. Aeris took charge and cast a bolt spell at the man. The quick attack caught the man off guard but he took the shock in stride and threw his own lightening spell back at her. Before she could dodge she saw the Gigas rush in front of her. The spell hit him dead on but it only seemed to liven him up. The SOLDIER then started spinning his weapon before he jumped and made a cut across the Gigas's torso. But the wound was ignored as the large man/monster roared as electricity flew off of its body, catching the metal weapon and shocking the SOLDIER. Cid shook his head and took another stab at the SOLDIER. The spear pierced his shoulder as the man grunted and shifted ever so slightly to get a stab at Cid's abdomen.

Taking advantage of the man's stunned being; Aeris concentrated and pointed her weapon at the man. A concentrated beam hit him square in the back. However this did jolt him and he took another slash at the Gigas. This caused the changed man to groan as he clenched the particularly deep wound inflicted upon him. The SOLDIER ran away and hid behind some boulders. Aeris started on healing the Gigas and Cid as much as she could. The First was still keeping up with them even with their advantage in magic and strength.

But Aeris did notice how instead of hopping away to cover the distance the SOLDIER ran instead. He looked like he was sweating too. Aeris thought about what could give them both a better edge. An idea suddenly struck her when she was done healing.

"Cid, go and keep attacking, he's getting tired." The man just grunted and hopped over the boulder; even winded he was still very spry and caused the First to move. While she kept healing Gigas, Cid kept the man occupied as he would launch maybe one or two spells and nick Cid. But with the SOLDIER now almost over tired she needed to just hit him a few more times.

Gigas jumped back into the fray and charged after the First. The man dodged from the smashing attack but Aeris had already chanted what she needed. Instead of her pole, she now had an oversized hammer. She ran up and hit the man. He grunted from the pain and hit her with a fire spell. She almost screamed at the burning she felt but she took a step back to make another swing and hit on the SOLDIER.

The man shoved her off when Cid tried to help her and did the same when Gigas threw a chunk of boulder at the man and he ducked out of the way. Aeris ignored her burns and made another hit at the man. Clearly agitated he punched Aeris and she fell down on the ground. He had his sword poised to strike when he clumsily dodged another boulder and a slash from Cid. He tried to stab him instead but Cid jumped out of the way so Gigas would charge at him, but this time he didn't even run. The drain on his magic and stamina had him taking heavy breaths by now. He held up his sword to brace for the arm about to smash him. Gigas raised his first and slammed down on the weapon. A very audible shatter of steel was heard before the sickening sound of bones being crushed under the man's force echoed.

Aeris heard some grunts and more smashes before she heard a groan and some wisps of smoke come into vision. She saw Vincent walk slowly over to her, covered in sweat and near exhausted, but forcing himself to stand none the less. He held out his gauntlet covered hand. Aeris took a few more breaths before she grabbed it and was heaved up on her feet. She looked around to see Cid sitting next to a rock, clearly exhausted, and enjoying his favorite pastime. She looked around to see if anything else was going on. But all she heard was silence.

"I think we won." Vincent said dryly.

"Well where's the cheering, I expected fireworks by the end of all this." Aeris couldn't hold back the laugh that popped up. She, Vincent, and Cid started for the Fort, all limping along the way.

* * *

><p>"Is it over?"<p>

"I saw them retreating out of the town!"

"We did it!"

I heard voices start to rise and cheer. I looked around and saw bloody looking men and women almost jumping for joy that the battle had been won. For a time I was nervous when I saw large explosions and spells being cast all over the place. But I put my troubles aside hearing the fanfare. I was absolutely sure that everyone lived through the ordeal, and thinking it was against actual SOLDIERs, I really believed we could take on Sephiroth in the future.

Coming up the hill I saw all of my teammates in varying conditions. Barret looking beat up and sweaty, Yuffie covered in dust and burns, Nanaki the same, Cait riding on a mangled looking mog, Aeris, Vincent, and Cid looking the worst out of everyone being exhausted and covered in wounds and burns of all degrees. But looking at each of them I couldn't help but start to laugh. They all had some kind of smile on their face. Against such odds, they had conquered and drove away Shinra, a mega corporation that had sent in some of its finest. We all seemed to be relaxed at that moment, taking the time to hear the yells of a job well done. I really couldn't be more proud of them. But with the battle ended, new worries had sprouted into my head. I started sweating now.

How much would Cid would hurt me when he found out he was just fighting to protect a giant egg?


	42. Chapter 42

A/N

Well its been a time and a half everyone, and I bet many of you will be surprised to see this story actually updated. I do want to announce that progress on editing the first chapters has been slow at best, what with RL getting in the way, but I believe I will be semi active in the next couple of weeks so maybe one more chapter will be made. So here is the long awaited chappa 42!

Enjoy!

* * *

><p>The celebration after the battle was the largest I'd ever seen in my life.<p>

By scale I had been to bigger: parades, town events, even raves had larger turnouts than this. I was exploring the somewhat repopulated township under Fort Condor. Without the forces of Shinra having semi-permanent camps in the town now, what with them moving out to Junon since their biggest attempt at getting to the reactor was thwarted, some of the villagers came back and had put up only the barest of things to get the celebration started. Everyone decided to have the party in the middle of town since people could walk around without the hassle of Shinra always being around, but I digress.

The party was so large because of how happy everyone looked. Sure a parade was on a holiday you took for granted, or you have a few hundred drugged up people dancing to synthetic music. This was a celebration about having won a battle that had every odd stacked against them; that these people were but ants that somehow were able to repel a human's foot away from stomping on them with what meager things they were given and could scrounge up. Every last person in the crowd was smiling, laughing, joking; all were completely at ease. A weight that everyone bore had lifted and spirits rose with it.

This is how I came to find myself drinking with Cid of all people.

The celebration was only for the night since Fort Condor could only spare so much food and drink with the village being almost bare. So every soldier, mercenary, and civilian decided to live it up. They inevitably dragged all of AVALANCHE into it since we were the heroes that stopped SOLDIERSs from decimating them; Cid even gave everyone who worked on the Highwind the night off. The leader of the base said he would talk with us the next day and told us to enjoy our victory for the night.

People like Cid and Barret had taken to it immediately and took advantage of the whole thing. Barret swelled with the attention he was getting as he talked about his experience taking a SOLDIER out single-handed, no pun intended. Cid made a beeline to the makeshift bar in the town square and demanded the strongest alcohol they had. Looking around I saw Nanaki and Cait Sith of to the side with the children of some of the returned villagers, unable to take part in drinking due to being an animal or a machine.

I laughed as I saw Aeris and Yuffie take sips of their drinks while socializing with the people, Aeris simply making conversation and Yuffie busting every title she could think of to impress people with her exploits around the world. Surprisingly Vincent showed up too, though brooding and leaning on the wall of a building a tad bit away from the crowd, but it was the thought that counted.

"Drink up." Cid said. I responded by downing my glass. I had intended to socialize as well, having already gotten recognition for stopping monsters from ambushing everyone from the air when Cid thought it would be funny for me to drink with him. What I think surprised him though was how well I was taking it in stride. This wasn't the first time I had alcohol, hell on my sixteenth birthday my brother thought it would be funny to give me a shot of vodka. Cid, having a similar experience, decided to make me drink with him to the point we would both be making fools out of ourselves. Considering how hardcore he was with three bottles gone now and only minute changes in his attitude, and the fact I had enough water after each drink to keep me hydrated and somewhat sober, it would take a long time to pull that off. However the taste and the burn of the stuff we were drinking wasn't unpleasant. With a name like Gysahl liquor I had expected it to taste horrible.

"You should have seen me. I charged the bastard and ran him through. That SOLDIER was too scared to move!" Cid was boasting about his fight now, but instead of making long and little dramatic story much like Barret was, he chose to make it seem like his battle was quick and he was able to get the drop on his guy. But having seen him exhausted from the battle before as well as the bandages wrapping his arms and torso anyone could tell is was more of a challenge than he described it to be. I laughed when he tried to make a stabbing motion only to wince and hold his arm. He glared at me for that.

"What's so funny? I don't hear any tales of overcoming the strongest fighting force in all of Gaia from you."

"I have a broken arm that I'm only allowed to start using in a few days. Plus I made sure a bunch of deadly birds and drakes didn't bug everyone when they were fighting. Technically I made it so your battles didn't suck any more than they did, so up yours Cid," I pointed out to him. Taking another drink I saw him glare at me from across the table, but not disagree with my argument.

"Hey guys!" My attention was next caught by a slightly flushed looking Barret smiling at me and Cid.

"Yo, how ya been?" I responded. Cid grumbled in Barret's direction as he passed me my refilled glass.

"Man I haven't been so good in a long time. I feel like I could take on Shinra with my hand tied behind my back, ain't nothing going to stand in my way!" Barret fist pumped his gun arm and laughed. Turned out Barret was the happy kind of drunk.

"You only got one hand meat head." Cid pointed out. Barret completely ignored the insult and instead wrapped his good arm around Cid's head, laughing it up.

"Don't be mad Cid, you can charge at'em with me," Barret said with the biggest smile I had seen on him.

"Let go of me!" Cid yelled. I laughed hard watching the two. The rest of the people who were listening to Cids story did as well. I got up and decided to walk around to make sure I wasn't going to make a fool of myself later by tripping over my own drunken feet. Plus I know Cid would have gladly drunk with me to the point where I would pass out and he would gloat the next day so I wanted to make sure he wouldn't get the satisfaction. But while trying to get away I found my arm being tugged by a certain ninja.

"Nate will you give me some materia? This is boring." I raised an eyebrow.

"How can you say this party is boring?" I ignored the request.

"Because Barret stopped being funny and Aeris won't start drinking more to get funny." Ah, she just wanted to see everybody drunk to the point we were all making idiots out of ourselves.

"Yuffie you should just be enjoying yourself, stop trying to cause mischief and explosions."

"But I like mischief and explosions!" I sighed before I took a closer look at her. I now noticed how red in the face she was. She seemed a little wobbly too so she was feeling some affects.

"I think you've drunk enough," I stated. Yuffie apparently didn't care.

"Come on Nate, no one else will do anything fun." I was going to argue with her more but my ears picked up some rather cheerful music playing. I guess someone found a radio or something and decided to liven up the party more. Seeing an opportunity for the both of us to have fun made me smile.

"Fun? Okay so how about we dance?" I blurted out. The thought barely processed before I spoke it. Yuffie was taken aback by my request.

"What?"

"Yeah let's dance!" I took her arm and dragged her near the middle of the town square. Already multiple people were dancing and others watching. I turned to Yuffie noticing her go still.

"Nate... I don't know how to dance." She said, looking down and looking sad since I already dragged her here.

"Perfect, neither do I." Honestly I only knew basic steps from school dances and other events. Besides that I had no idea how to make any kind of move on any dance floor.

"It's all about keeping in rhythm. Follow me" What I can only describe our dance to be was a bunch random steps in a circle, swinging arms, and just swaying back and forth went on for a good thirty minutes. It was very early on that Yuffie got into it too and we both just smiled and laughed at the whole experience. Lucky for us the mess we called dancing went unnoticed. Sure enough the party started dying off. People got sleepy and the liquor ran out. It eventually was just me and Yuffie resting from our escapades while there were a few who decided to clean up a little of the place before they were to sleep. Yet I didn't want everything to end just yet, so getting another idea I took Yuffie's arm and headed up to the hill towards Fort Condor.

"Nate what is it now?" She asked, now a little bit better after having used up all her energy and getting some liquids that didn't mess with her down.

"Just wait, tonight is perfect for this and I don't want you to miss out," I explained. Soon enough I pulled her past the fort and up the hill towards the reactor. Soon enough we were on top of the machine. The left over shell pieces from the condor chick were still left on the top. Seeing the giant condor go was somewhat heartbreaking, I mean after all this time of defending the nest the bird simply died. But the sight of the little chick, or giant compared to my size, hatched all the same and flew off. I had snatched the Phoenix materia earlier and had kept it on me since the end of the battle. I scoured the rest of the field afterwards and found out why Aeris had such a big problem with her SOLDIER. Apparently the guy had a Tetra elemental, when I saw that I took it off the frozen arm and slipped it on. I let go of Yuffie's hand and kicked the shell pieces away and sat down on the metal top.

"This is what I wanted you to see." I outstretched my hand and Yuffie looked up.

Almost on cue the first firework went up. I smiled at my stroke of luck actually working for me. I had heard from a few people in the crowd while drinking with Cid that after the party was over there would be show afterwards. I thought it would be great to watch it with Yuffie though I never did find out whether she liked them or not.

"Did you plan this?" Surprise was written all over her face.

"Watching the show? Yes. Calling the fireworks on time; completely by accident." I smiled. Yuffie giggled before she sat down next to me and started watching the various colorful explosions going on in the sky.

"You know...everything might go our way soon," I said out loud.

"You mean saving the Planet?" Yuffie asked.

"That and killing Sephiroth for good. After seeing what happened today, I believe you guys could handle anything."

"What do you mean by you guys?" she asked.

"Sorry, first thing that popped into my head. But I mean it." I shook my head. It was embarrassing since that was the first thing to talk about for me. I'm not good at these moments considering I barely had any of them.

"What about you?" Yuffie interrupted my thoughts; I decided to give her the same answer I gave Aeris.

"I'm good enough to support you guys, you're the heroes, I just came on for the ride." Next thing I felt was a smack on the back of my head.

"Don't start that other world stuff now." Yuffie looked annoyed. I was surprised she did that, I mean Aeris took it in stride and told me I was still helping. Not violently hitting me for what I personally thought.

"I told you guys how the story goes, I just changed some things so everyone isn't so sad." That being said I did think about Cloud's current predicament. Before I could get a good thought in though I felt another slap to my head.

"Quit that!" I yelled.

"Then stop thinking about stuff. We're gunna beat Seph, get famous, and then we'll go traveling all over the world!" Hearing her I thought what she said was kind of redundant.

"Yuffie we've pretty much covered the entire world already." Which surprised me actually, a few months on foot, car, boat... well boat-plane, and airship allowed us to cover almost every corner of the world.

"Then we'll do it again!" She suddenly stood up and raised her fist into the air, striking one of her dramatic poses.

"Just think Nate, everyone else is going to settle down after the world almost blows up but we'll be making ourselves into legends!"

"Wouldn't we already be if we saved the world?"

"Even bigger legends then, people will cheer when they hear about the adventures of Wutai's warrior princess and you, the mysterious stranger who fell from the sky!" I gave her a look at the last title.

"Yuffie that is a horrible title, I don't even think I actually fell into Midgar, I just warped onto some trash. Who in their right mind would think that would be a cool name?" I snorted. Yuffie hit my shoulder as she sat back down. The fireworks were getting to the bigger explosions when she did. For the most part it was quiet as we both watched the colorful sky. Yuffie had settled down but over time looked like she was thinking hard about something.

"Nate, how come you like me?" I was thrown for a loop when she suddenly asked that.

"Where's that coming from?" I would have assumed she was still drunk but she looked surprisingly lucid when she asked that question.

"You talk about everyone just being characters before you came here. You know so much about everyone's past; about me. I've been wondering... how come you like me?"

It took me some time before I could think straight and process her question. Yuffie had asked why I liked her as a person even though I knew her as a character. I had only thought about it in passing once when I first felt something for her at Wutai. Considering everything we had been through, how I helped her for the sake of helping her rather than for completing a side quest. Now with the fact I knew how the world worked for the next three years and about everyone's past I guess she would start asking questions. After a minute I thought of an acceptable answer.

"I never really had a girlfriend back on Earth. I wasn't as active as I am now; I was kind of a shut-in actually. Having those dreams that couldn't be fulfilled because of how Earth worked. So I just went with the flow of life set for average people like me and hoped with enough hard work I could find a comfortable life to settle into." Out of the corner of my eye I saw Yuffie had been listening intently, so I continued.

"Then I'm suddenly dropped here, into a world I knew more so than my own, this place where friendship and loyalty are valued like I wanted Earth to, a place where working hard and getting stronger actually does get you somewhere in life. A world filled with people I knew in such a way that they were my friends even though they had never met me. Sure enough, being in Gaia for as long as I have allowed it to change me, I found the courage to fight things hundreds of times larger and stronger than myself. I feel energy in me I never knew I had flow through my veins as this adventure grew. I became stronger, more perceptive, outgoing, everything I ever wanted to be in my world. I could follow my dream childish dream of being a hero." I lifted my head and looked Yuffie in the eye.

"Yuffie... could you tell me something about yourself?" She blinked.

"Like what?"

"How was life growing up as a princess? What were you like before you started adventuring?" It didn't take long for her to answer.

"It sucked; dad was always on about representing Wutai's tradition being royalty. Mom was nice but she always put me in expensive dresses. The Single White Rose of Wutai is a delicate flower, that's what she would say when she was with me. It sucked being a princess, so I learned how to sneak and steal, to fight like the ninjas that used to protect my dad before Wutai lost the war." Her answer was pretty much what I expected. A princess stuck in a sheltered life that was set in front of her. But unlike me she was able to get out of her situation on her own.

"You are very different from me, your sneakiness is something to admire, you have strength to protect your friends, and your bubbly personality could lift anyone's worries. You chose to become a lowly thief to help your country after it lost so much in a pointless war." Yuffie started to turn red from my words.

"You were the opposite of what I used to be basically, and I found myself drawn to you after you gave me these gauntlets in Wutai. You could always surprise me no matter how much I would try to predict you. You became precious to me in a way I hadn't felt about someone before. In only a few months I saw all of that adventurous spirit, brashness, happiness, everything I could think of that made my heart race; you had it all Yuffie. That's why I started liking you... That's why I love you."

I don't know if it was the alcohol or the moment, but I felt my heart skip a beat as I admitted everything to Yuffie. The three words I had never said to a girl before finally came out of me. As much as I wanted to look away in embarrassment I couldn't turn away from Yuffie. She looked so surprised I had said I loved her, that I actually fell for her. Soon she looked tense and started to tear up. She didn't sob, she just started letting tears run down while she stared at me. I felt myself move to wipe some of the tears away as I smiled. I knew they weren't meant to be sad, I knew how happy she felt at that moment. She then started to smile and held my hand. Finally I felt compelled to lean closer, but she whispered, stopping me midway.

"...I love you too..." she lean in and kissed me.

My heart stopped. The feeling was so different from my desperate kiss at the crater. Everything about the moment felt right. Her lips were so soft, so gentle; it sent shivers down my spine. I felt the need to hold her closer, to be with her more, and to protect her from all the bad things around us. I wanted to be by her side, and I wanted her by mine. I finally realized how much I had fallen for her after everything we had been through. For that moment the Planet stopped. It wasn't in danger, there was no one else but us, and it would be that way for an eternity.

I don't know how long the kiss lasted, but it felt too soon when we both pulled back. I could feel my chest thumping, my breath getting heavy, and my limbs going numb. The fireworks had ended a long time ago, but I didn't want to get up and leave. Instead I moved closer to Yuffie, I wrapped my arm around her and held her close. Her frame felt so frail now... She was so small... So fragile... So beautiful...

"Let's stay here, just a little longer... please" She pleaded, sounding so desperate and vulnerable. I smiled. I looked down into her eyes and she looked up at me. Her dark brown orbs bore into my light brown ones. She looked into me as I looked into her and for a split second it felt as if we both saw into the others soul. I started crying, but I couldn't look away. I didn't want to deny her anything; I wanted to give her everything she wanted and more.

"…As long as you want." I leaned down and we kissed again. Another eternity of bliss passed us by. The only thing that mattered to us now was that the other didn't want this night to end. The only thought I had was that it never would, because I loved her, and she loved me.

The next day I woke up more refreshed than I had ever been. Yuffie and I were up late into the night before we both got down from the reactor and went to our separate rooms. It wasn't until I was in bed did I realize I got that date out of Yuffie that I wanted since I was at Icicle Inn. I felt more relieved than had ever felt before. The world was still in danger, but I had a feeling everything would go our way.

I decided to eat in the fort's mess hall when I was greeted by enthusiastic soldiers congratulating me. Even though I only helped a little the fact that with AVALANCHE they were able to drive off Shinra for good made everyone involved in the fight famous. As I sat down to enjoy my food I noticed how barren the place was now. With Shinra gone Fort Condor was now putting most of its resources and man power to rebuilding the village below it. However looking around I did find my favorite brooder sitting down and eating. Quickly I grabbed some food and went to sit by Vincent.

"Good morning." I said with a cheeky smile.

"In a good mood I see," He stated, not showing much interest in my change of behavior.

"Last night went pretty well for me actually; it really made me look on the bright side." It was mostly what was after the party but Vince didn't care about that info and I felt like keeping it from everyone anyway.

"But anyway, how are you feeling? You looked pretty shaken up when you came back to the fort." In fact the whole team looked horrible after their fights against the SOLDIERs. Vincent and Aeris were two of the worst with burns and tears all over their clothes and skin. Although Cid had them all beat having had his entire shirt ripped and his body covered in sword wounds and what looked like shrapnel in his back.

"I've healed; everyone is fine now that the battle is done." He answered while eating slowly. I nodded before I decided check on Aeris too since Cid looked fine the night before.

"By the way, what is our next plan of action?" He asked. I sighed before I answered.

"We're going back to a hopefully evacuated Mideel to pick up Cloud and Tifa and mostly likely fight off a WEAPON. Afterwards we'll find a way to get Cloud back to normal and then have to get two more Huge materia which are in some ridiculous places." Vincent seemed unnerved.

"How much longer do we have until we find Hojo?" I realized that was his main focus point.

"Not until we kill just about every WEAPON left in the world and then go skydiving into Midgar. We go in, kill Scarlet, Heidegger, and then Hojo and we'll be golden until we have to fight Sephiroth basically."

"What about the Turks and Rufus? They aren't going to die?"

"We will have a conflict with them but killing them isn't an option. They will help us in the end; as much as everyone hates them we will need them in the coming years." I didn't want needless deaths either. The Turks were bad but they deserved a chance to redeem themselves.

"We still have so much to do," He mused, I nodded.

"We will find time though to get everyone's strongest power though. Those materia I got are only for what the Huge materia can do, and even then I only think we will get one good item out of that. But everyone will need to find their most powerful weapon as well as power to combat Sephiroth." Vincent seemed genuinely interested at that prospect.

"What are mine?" I was about to answer out right when I realized where he would get these abilities.

"Well first of all Vince I will tell you that we will go someplace, and you will most likely want to be alone for an extended period of time due to the shell shock you'll get. But your weapon will be a shotgun, I don't know how you made it, I don't know where it came from but you'll have it." Vincent actually seemed a little off put at the fact he would be shocked in the future. Telling a guy that shows almost no feelings that he will experience an extreme emotion in the future would throw them off I guess.

"What about my power? What will I be able to do?"

"You know how you can transform into different monsters?" I started, nervous about how he'll react.

"Yes... if it's that then I must disappoint you. I can't turn into anything else," He answered coolly.

"You have one more transformation, you just don't have the control to pull it off," I hinted. I realize now that even though Vincent was a Turk he didn't have to hold back his reactions, and dropping one bomb beforehand lead to him pulling a gun out in my face so some subtly was required.

"...You're not implying..." Vincent seemed to realize what I was talking about and his eyes actually widened. I couldn't blame him. He now knew there was a way for him to transform into, or at least partially into one of the most destructive forces known to Gaia.

"I don't know how you do it; I'm just saying that it is possible to do. I know how much you dislike what's inside you, but it's going to be a boon when we have to fight Sephiroth." Vincent simply stared into space for a minute, letting my words sink in. Before long he sighed and started eating again.

"I will have to prepare myself, every last one of us will have to; you as well. When your arm heals you must train and become stronger. Am I to assume Sephiroth has actually gotten stronger as time has passed?"

"Yes, age seems to be a non-factor and Jenova has just been biding its time," I explained. I would have said more but a loud rowdy voice groaned. I looked over to see Barret get some food before looking at us.

"Cid says to meet in a minute with the Fort leader guy... What were ya'll takin bout?" He asked, somewhat confused. I guess he had a little too much. I wanted to laugh but Barret was already irritable, not a good idea to make him worse.

"Future stuff, I'll have to talk to everyone about this sometime, but it can wait a little." Both Vincent and I got up while Barret followed behind with his food. Finding the rest of their ultimate weapons and limit breaks would be important. However I would have to think about myself as well. Fusion would always be my main weapon, but I was having the hardest time thinking of attacks that had real power behind them, and even then that would mean I would have to use them sparingly. I had one technique in mind but I hadn't tested how it would go. However I shook my head, I have time to think about testing limit breaks later, the important thing is obtaining the next piece of Huge materia and trying to help Cloud and Tifa as much as I could offer later.

When we arrived I found the rest of the gang standing around the old man who was sitting in his usual place. On one side I saw Yuffie and I couldn't keep myself from smiling at her. She noticed me and walked over. She stole a peck to my cheek while everyone was focusing on the old man. I felt elated at the simple kiss and stood closer to her.

"Everyone… thanks... I really mean it. Thanks" The guy started, looking more relieved than before Shinra was ran out. The whole group looked proud that Fort Condor would be at peace now.

"Although there isn't anything we can give you, we'll make sure you can stop in and stay anytime, be sure to drop by." He offered genuinely, however Cid look confused and annoyed.

"Nothing? You have absolutely nothing to give us for driving off the fuckers that have been harassing and attacking you?" Cid didn't look angry; besides his usual language he seemed genuinely surprised we weren't getting anything. However the old man before us nodded before he seemed to have an idea strike him.

"Yes, yes... this is one thing I forgot to give you." He reached under the table and pulled out a small crate. He blew some dust off of it before he took the lid off and offered the item inside to us. Cid and just about the entire group looked stunned at the sight of the bright yellow jewel that was a Huge Materia.

"The truth is, this was the materia in the reactor."

"What the hell did we fight for?" Cid had turned his head towards me but I motioned for him to keep listening to the old man.

"We weren't protecting the reactor, we were protecting the condor. When the reactor was built, they forced us to help. That's how we knew what was inside the reactor. But I knew this day would come, so when Shinra left I snuck in and took the materia." Cid almost coughed at that. I knew I would get flack for keeping back the knowledge that they already had the materia in their possession.

"I didn't mean to fool you, but I guess that's how it ended up. I'm sorry."

"We shoulda seen that comin a mile away." Barret added as the old man looked at the ground with sorry eyes. Barret's eyes were focusing on me when he spoke.

"Just forget about it. We're still alive anyway," Cid sighed, still tired from the battle a few days ago. The old man looked at Cid with surprise before he gave us a pleasant smile.

"Well when you put it that way... We're really grateful." All of us smiled back before we turned to leave with Barret taking the crate with the Huge Materia in it.

"You know I should be kicking your ass right about now for leaving out that old bastard had what we wanted." Cid started, just as sour as he predictably would be.

"Come now, even if he told us you know we would have all fought to protect the condors with those people still." Aeris defended.

"I know, that's why the brat ain't getting a beating. We would have gotten soft on those guys anyway. But for future headache relief kid, could you please tell us in advance when the balls going to be dropped? Cuz I would like to know now what shits about to hit the fan." Cid asked. I thought for a moment to get the sequence of events sorted out.

"We don't have to search for the rest of the Huge Materia. Even though I know in advance it would cause problems if we tried to early. So we need to go see Cloud and Tifa. When we get there Ultima WEAPON will start attacking the village and the Lifestream will basically eat up the entire village. But with the help of Kunsel I think almost all of the residents should be gone now. But the biggest problem is Cloud's health... and the fact we have to let him and Tifa fall into the Lifestream." The whole group stopped in the middle of the field. The idea I let out starting to sink in.

"Now you're going crazy. Ain't no way Tifa and Cloud are getting out of that alive together." Barret started.

"I have to agree, how do you know they will come out alright?" Vincent questioned.

"Honestly, I don't. If Aeris was dead than she would be able to protect them both as Cloud recovered. But with her here... I don't know how else he could recuperate."

"Wait? I would protect them?" Aeris asked, confused since she would essentially be out of the game and couldn't do anything.

"Somehow certain people like the Cetra can have large influences in the Lifestream. You were able to cast an amazing spell in the afterlife to help people with Jenova cells in the future. You could protect people from the harmful effects of Mako as well. But now... I don't have a clue."

"Listen we'll burn that bridge when we get there. But until then I wanna get on my ship, drink some tea, take a long ass nap and then kill a giant monster thing." Cid dismissed. No one argued him either. Since we couldn't do anything we would have to wait and see what would happen next. I didn't feel up for it and it scared me to think about all of the unknowns. However I felt a hand squeeze mine making me look at Yuffie. She smiled at me and I smiled back, her reassurance at least comforting me a little.

There were few times that the penthouse office had looked so unruly in his eyes. Stacks of paperwork had been thrown into the wall and ground. The table had noticeable marks from being beaten, and the shades were bent from being crumpled in a fist. But the man sitting in the chair looked very out of place since he had the calmest expression on.

Rufus would never admit to having a fit. But the situation had caused him more stress than he would like to accept. He had received a call from the invasion force recently and found out only a handful of Shinra army men were accounted for. They gave their report and Rufus became very angry. Somehow Fort Condor was able to not only defend against them, but also repel Shinra's forces. He had questioned what had happened to the six SOLDIERs he spared for the force.

Every last one of them was killed. One First class, three Seconds, and two Thirds. A Shinra strike force had been defeated by some ragtag villagers and military men banded together. When questioned more the men stated that when they were losing too many men they sent in, the SOLDIERs joined the battle and started demolishing everyone. But when they were within the enemy's territory they all somehow found themselves dead because the military men said that they were repelled less than an hour later.

This was a case of bad intelligence that left a very bitter taste in Rufus's mouth. He had wasted not only a handful of SOLDIER hopefuls but one of the few decent First Classes left under their employ. When he went to see Heidegger he looked through Fort Condor's files only to find out a probing team of MP's and monsters would be sent out every few weeks to test what defenses were set up. However there was a gap of about a month since the last team was sent, and in that time Fort Condor had somehow acquired enough mercenaries to teach them enough about tactics to fight off SOLDIERs, along with gaining enough materia to bombard the invading force.

So there he was, sitting in a dark and messy room with a slight frown. He had ordered that the Huge Materia in Junon be extracted as quickly as possible, even if they had to cut corners on making sure it was safe to do. But it would still take a few days or so to do that. Rufus had then made sure to see how fast the Sister Ray was being transported. Multiple phone calls later and after being reassured multiple times, it would be within the week that it would be in Midgar. Later he called in Reeve and had him report on AVALANCHE. Rufus had been thinking and couldn't get it out of his mind that they were involved, that they were ruining everything right under his nose and getting away with it. But when Reeve arrived he found himself with answers that unfortunately answered his questions

Reeve asked why AVALANCHE would steal an item they didn't even know about. Rufus paused. He recalled that the only people that knew the official use of the Huge Materia were the chief staff of Shinra. For that secret to get out would have meant one of them was a snitch or let it slip in front of a spy AVALANCHE may have had. Then Reeve said even if they were involved, the plan Shinra had would save the world, so wouldn't they stay out of Shinra's way?

Rufus couldn't argue any of it. Even if they were enemies, AVALANCHE would let Shinra try to destroy Meteor if it had a chance. They may have caused problems if they found out Shinra had tried to invade Fort Condor, or at the negligence of Scarlet to run an entire tent city down with a train. Reeve informed him they landed near Fort Condor days before to investigate a small Mako fountain that had been documented in the Mythril Mines. But they flew off when they couldn't find Strife.

Rufus thanked Reeve for his time and sent him to keep feeding AVALANCHE information on random fountains. It would only long enough but it was a matter of time before AVALANCHE meddled in something of Shinra's, and reports were scarce since his only source at the moment was Reeve. However he did find out that even being left with two of the four Materia, Scarlet had assured him that the rocket would still destroy Meteor. The Black Materia was old and powerful, but was hardly the size of a Huge Materia. Having 660 times the power of normal materia shooting straight at the rock still had a high success rate.

So Rufus sat in his dirty office. He needed to keep control. If he didn't, then he knew everything would fall apart.

The few hours we had on the flight were peaceful. When I got checked by the medic I was told I could use my arm again. It felt tight at times and stung when I flexed it to fast but for all intents and purposes I was battle worthy. But I would need to make sure I didn't end up in situations where I would get hurt. Being shocked, stabbed, drowned, shot and nearly exploded as well as almost every other kind of horrible pain a person could go through makes a man cautious of what he is doing.

I took advantage with what time I had and started to relearn how to fight with Fusion. Getting used to using my left and two hands with the blade at the same time would take some getting used to, but it was good to have my arm back so soon. But the few hours that I had to practice went by quickly, Cid announced that we had arrived at Mideel and that everyone was to get off. The entire team was to make sure the village was evacuated by the time we got Cloud.

After much deliberation I had decided to take Cloud and Tifa with us and try to cure him without falling into the Lifestream. With Aeris we could possibly find a way to help him long term and get him back to normal. But until then we would have to keep him safe and away from trouble. I would also have to talk to Kunsel about tagging along. He was a SOLDIER 2nd, perhaps he would want to fight for Zack, I didn't know.

The whole team got of the airship and entered the now almost barren looking village. Now people sitting around outside, no crazy lady trying to buy up all of the merchandise, it was all quiet peaceful and eerie at the same time.

"Guys!" Kunsel waved and ran up to us.

"Did you get everyone out?" Cid asked, getting straight to the point.

"Mostly, everyone in the clinic is still there. I've been helping stragglers lately."

"How did you get everyone out? I'm surprised it's this empty." Yuffie said, looking around.

"The wealthier families up north were hard to deal with, but a SOLDIER telling you there is an island wide emergency that Shinra officially announces..." Kunsel left the sentence hanging. It really was an island wide emergency, just not anything Shinra was going to do anything about.

"Looks like you're actually useful," Barret said offhandedly. Kunsel's mouth bared its teeth.

"Hey, cut me some slack." He crossed his arms.

"Alright let's quit wasting time and get Cloud. Nate you go and help Tifa. The rest of us will drive off that WEAPON coming here," Cid announced. I nodded and ran towards the clinic.

"Wait what? What the hell is a WEAPON coming here for?!" I heard Kunsel yell in the distance. I ignored him and entered the shack. The nurse inside looked sad and the doctor was sitting at his desk looking at papers. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Tifa staring at Cloud, near the exact same position we left her.

"His condition hasn't changed." The doctor didn't turn around as he spoke. "I would say patience will help, but that evacuation may cause problems." He sighed before I turned and walked into the room. Tifa just barely lifting her head to address me.

"It's no use...I don't understand a thing. Cloud..." She looked heartbroken, so sad. I wanted to say that he would be alright, but even I didn't know if he would be.

"What should I do? What if you never recover for the rest of your life?" I could see tears forming at the corner of her eyes. I shook my head before I took out a rag from my pocket and gave it to her.

Suddenly the room started shaking; Tifa fell down while I caught myself on a hanging drawer door. I started hearing deep screeching noises outside as well. Cloud looked up, his abnormally green eyes staring at the ceiling. Barely forming what words he could.

"...They're...They're...coming...!"

"What's happening!?" Tifa grabbed onto a beds frame, looking around frantically. I feel to the ground and kept my head low. Ultima had arrived.

"Get down here you overgrown lizard!" Cid yelled. The giant dragon looking monster in the sky bellowing as it just soared in the air. The earth nearly knocking him on his ass as it continued shaking. In the distance he could see green liquid spout from the earth like a geyser.

"Dammit we ain't got time, Barret get that things attention!" Cid ordered. The larger man nodded before he aimed his gun arm and started shooting at Ultima WEAPON. Its bellows stopping as it finally took notice of the people on the ground trying to kill it. It roared as it dive bombed at the group. Everyone ran and jumped out of the way as the creature landed in the middle of the group.

"Aeris, start casting buffs! Everyone else, get that thing out of here!" Cid yelled with his spear already in hand as he charged at the now idle monster. However Ultima turned and swiped Cid's feet with its tail. Barret started shooting at the creatures head but the bullets only sank into the creature's scales. The monster turned and roared as a light started to shine in the middle of its chest. Cid panicked just before he jumped away when Ultima roared and unleashed the concentrated beam. The energy attack completely decimated what was in its path, the beam continued to travel until the monster finally stopped to rest. What was left in the attacks path were completely destroyed and charred trees along with a chunk of earth missing from the ground.

"Damn monsters and their laser attacks. How many of these fuckers have we fought have lasers that can kill us?" Cid grumbled as he was pulled up by Vincent.

"Complaining will get us nowhere. We need to get past its armor to…" Suddenly the creature roared again as it swiped its tail. Both men were confused when they saw the wound left on the base of the tail.

"Who landed the hit?!" Cid yelled, the creature suddenly stomped into the ground and formed cracks before it stomped again and opened them. Cid panicked when he saw that a few people might fall into the holes when another series of cracks appeared and started to collapse the ground on itself. He looked around and noticed Barret had smashed his gun arm into the ground and pulled it back out and started firing again. While the monster was confused at the lack of dead humans it turned just in time to swat a flying ninja star coming at it with its clawed fist and cover its face from a fire spell aimed at it. It however didn't notice the purple blur to it side until one of the three horns on its head was sliced off.

"I hunt monsters like you for a living; you think you can mess with me?" Kunsel yelled out as he landed on the ground. His broadsword grasped firmly in both hands covered in purple blood. Everyone in AVALANCHE was almost ecstatic now that they knew they could harm the monster physically. But before any plans could be put into action the monster started to flap its wings and lift off the ground.

"Why are you trying to escape, you fucker, get back down here and fight like a man!" Cid yelled at the airborne WEAPON. The creature paid him no head as it charged up its beam once more and fired at a different piece of ground before flying away in the distance as the ground beneath the group slowly stopped shaking.

"Damn, a little longer and I would have found a way to smash it up more." Barret said, breaking the tension. Red nodded.

"It looks like the Lifestream is okay…was Nate wrong?" Before anyone could respond the ground started to shake again.

"Nope, fuckers right again. Everyone haul ass out of here." Cid yelled.

"What about Cloud, Tifa and Nate?" Aeris asked.

"He'll get them to safety. Just start running. He knows what he's doing." Cid didn't sound to convincing but the rest of the group couldn't argue as the earthquake increasingly got worse.

"Okay we need to move… now!" I said. The sudden stop and restart of the earthquake was a good enough signal to start moving out. Tifa nodded as she took Clouds wheel chair and started rolling it. The doctor ran to the door and slammed it open.

"The building can't take the tremors, head out now and get to an open space!" The normally soft spoken old man ordered. I ran as Tifa pushed Cloud behind me. I saw the doctor take off north as I looked around. Knowing the bridge area would collapse on us it pointed south.

"Behind those buildings, we'll go around." I turned and took another side of Cloud's chairs as we rolled it out of the building and in-between two more in a small alley. The rumbling grew as the clinic behind us sank into the ground along with a chunk of land. I looked forward and turned Cloud so we would run along the side of a building and the tree's when I felt my arm get clipped by rocks as the area to my right lifted up and started to sink down. Looking to the tree's I saw Mako pools forming as land started to fall through, leaving little maneuvering room from a wheelchair. I pushed Cloud fast with Tifa looking for an area that could be safe from the sinking landscape.

Then I saw a large clearing of what looked like destroyed trees. Cid's fight with the WEAPON probably made it, I didn't care too much. It looked rough but it would give us a way to make it to the battlefield. I pointed as Tifa looked over and nodded as we sped through what trees blocked out path, nearly knocking Cloud out as we hit roots and trucks to get away. We pushed Cloud into the small ramp like dirt and continued running, the clearing where they fought Ultima was ahead.

"We need to get Cloud to the Highwind, don't stop running." I ordered, the quakes suddenly feeling worse as we ran towards the airships direction.

Suddenly I felt myself lurch forward and push Cloud and Tifa ahead of me. I scramble to get up only to find my leg caught in the soft ground. My brain tried to process this only for me to realize the entire field had too many uneven cracks with sinking dirt in it. The earthquakes felt worse as I noticed more than the bridge area fall into the Lifestream, but the field gradually fell through along with the ground beneath Tifa and Cloud.

"NO!" I pulled my leg out as I rushed towards the two as the ground fell underneath them. Tifa panicked as she looked back and then up at me as she reached her hand out as she fell. Both her and Cloud falling into the deep green liquid beneath them as I slid to a halt and back away from the falling ground.

"TIFA!" I froze in place as I saw the two plunge into the emerald abyss. More earth fell into the stream until a large wave of liquid shot out.

I stood wide eyed as the liquid shot into the air and inevitably crashed down onto me.


End file.
